I 


UNIVERSITY  OF    I 


CAUFORNIA    .  _^ 


A    TAPIRO    PVGMV, 


[Fioiiliit' 


PYGMIES   &  PAPUANS 

THE   STONE    AGE   TO-DAY 
IN    DUTCH    NEW    GUINEA 


BY 

A.     F.     R.    WOLLASTON 

AUTHOR  OF    "FROM   RUWENZORl   TO   THE   CONGO" 


WITH   APPENDICES    BY 

W.    R.   OGILVIE-GRANT,    A.   C.   HADDON,   F.R.S. 

AND    SIDNEY   H.   RAY 


WITH  ILLUSlNAnoyS   AND  MAPS 


NEW  YORK 

STURGIS    &    WALTON 

COMPANY 

1912 


kVvV? 


PRINTED    BV 

WILLIAM   CLOWES   AND   SONS,    LIMITED 

LONDON   AND    BECCLES 


<r 


TO 

ALFRED    RUSSEL    WALLACE,    O.M. 

THIS  BOOK  IS  DEDICATED 


255453 


PREFACE 

The  Committee  who  organised  the  late  expedition  to 
Dutch  New  Guinea,  paid  me  the  high  comphment  of 
inviting  me  to  write  an  account  of  our  doings  In  that 
country.  The  fact  that  it  is,  in  a  sense,  the  official 
account  of  the  expedition  has  precluded  me — greatly 
to  the  advantage  of  the  reader — from  offering  my  own 
views  on  the  things  that  we  saw  and  on  things  in 
general.  The  country  that  we  visited  was  quite  unknown 
to  Europeans,  and  the  native  races  with  whom  we  came 
in  contact  were  living  in  so  primitive  a  state  that  the 
second  title  of  this  book  is  literally  true.  The  pygmies 
are  indeed  one  of  the  most  primitive  peoples  now  In 
existence. 

Should  any  find  this  account  lacking  in  thrilling 
adventure,  I  will  quote  the  words  of  a  famous  navigator, 
who  visited  the  coasts  of  New  Guinea  more  than  two 
hundred  years  ago: — "It  has  been  Objected  against  me 
by  some,  that  my  Accounts  and  Descriptions  of  Things 
are  dry  and  jejune,  not  filled  with  variety  of  pleasant 
Matter,  to  divert  and  gratify  the  Curious  Reader.  How 
far  this  is  true,  I  must  leave  to  the  World  to  judge. 
But  if  I  have  been  exactly  and  strictly  careful  to  give 
only   Tr2ie   Relations   and   Descriptions    of  Things  (as    I 


vHI  PREFACE 

am  sure  I  have  ;)  and  if  my  Descriptions  be  such  as 
may  be  of  use  not  only  to  myself,  but  also  to  others 
in  future  Voyages  ;  and  likewise  to  such  readers  at  home 
as  are  desirous  of  a  Plain  and  Just  Account  of  the  true 
Nature  and  State  of  the  Things  described,  than  of  a 
Polite  and  Rhetorical  Narrative  :  I  hope  all  the  Defects 
in  my  Stile  will  meet  with  an  easy  and  ready  Pardon." 

To  Dr.  Alfred  Russel  Wallace,  who  has  allowed  me 
to  inscribe  this  volume  to  him  as  a  small  token  of 
admiration  for  the  first  and  greatest  of  the  Naturalists 
who  visited  New  Guinea,   my   most   sincere   thanks   are 

due. 

To  Mr.  W.  R.  Ogllvie-Grant,  Dr.  A.  C.  Haddon,  and 
Mr.  Sidney  Ray,  who  have  not  only  assisted  me  with 
advice  but  have  contributed  the  three  most  valuable 
articles  at  the  end  of  this  volume,  I  can  only  repeat  my 
thanks,  which  have  been  expressed  elsewhere. 

To  my  fellow-members  of  the  expedition  I  would  like 
to  wish  further  voyages  in  more  propitious  climates. 


A.F.R.W. 


London, 
May^  1 91 2. 


CONTENTS 

PAGE 

Preface vii 

Introduction xix 

CHAPTER   I 

TJie  British    Ornithologists'    U?iion— Members   of  the  Expedition — 
Voyage  to  Java— Choice  of  Rivers—Prosperity  of  Java— Half-  ^^ 
castes— Obsequious  Javanese-^The  Rifst-taf el— Customs   of  the 
Dutch — Buitenzorg  Garden — Garoet j 

CHAPTER    n 

Expedition  leaves  Java— The  "Mas  "—Escort— Macassar— Eaja  of 
Goa — Amboina — Corals  and  Fishes — Ambonese  Christiatis — 
Dutch  Chibs — Dobo i-y 

CHAPTER   HI 

New  Guinea— Its  Position  and  Extent— Territorial  Divisions- 
Mountain  Ranges — Numerous  Rivers — The  Papuans— The  Dis- 
covery of  New  Guinea— Early  Voyagers— Spanish  and  Dutch- 
Jan  Carstensz— First  Discovery  of  the  Snow  Mountains—  William 
Dampier  in  the  '' Roebuck''— Captain  Cook  in  the  "  Endeavour" 
— Naturalists  and  later  Explorers 21 

CHAPTER  IM 

Sail  from  the  Am  Islands— Sight  New  Guinea— Distant  Mountains 
— Signal  Fires— Natives  in  Canoes— A  British  Flag— Natives  on 
Board— Their  Behaviour— Arrival  at  Mimika  River— Reception 
at  Wakatimi— Dancing  and  Weepi?ig— landing  Stores —  Vien>  of 
the  Country  — Snow  Mountains  —  Shark-fshing—  Making  the 
Camp— Death  of  IV.  Stalker     .         .         .  ".         ,         .         .35 

If 


CONTENTS 


CHAPTER  V 


Arrival  of  our  Amhoiiese— Coolie  Considerations — Canoes  of  the 
Natives  —  Making  Canoes  —  Prclitninary  Exploration  of  the 
Mimika— Variable  Tides— Completing  the  Camp— A  Plague  of 
Flies— Also  of  Crickets— Making  ''  Atap''— Trading  with  the 
Natives— Trade  Goods 5° 


CHAPTER  VI 

Difficulties  of  Food— Coolies'  Rations— Choice  of  Provisions— Trans- 
portifig  Supplies  up  the  Mimika — Description  of  the  River — A 
Day's  Work— Monotonous  Sce?iery— Crowned  Pigeons— Birds  of 
Paradise  aiid  Others — Snakes,  Bees,  and  other  Creatures — Rapids 
ajid  Clear  Water— The  Seasons— Wind— Rain— Thunderstorms 
—Halleys  Comet 65 


CHAPTER  Vn 

Exploration  of  the  Kapare  River— Obota— Native  Geography— River 
Obstructions— Bornbills  and  Tree  Ducks— Gifts  of  Stones— 
Importance  of  Steafn  Launch — Cultivation  of  Tobacco — Sago 
Stvamps — Manufacture  of  Sago— Cooking  of  Sago— The  Dutch 
Use  of  Convict  Labour 


82 


CHAPTER  VHI 

Description  of  Wakatimi—The  Papuan  House— Coconut  Palms— The 
Sugar  Palm— Drunkenness  of  the  Natives— Drunken  Vagaries- 
Other  Cultivatioft-The  Native  Language— No  Interpreters— The 
Numerals— Difficulties  of  Understanding— Names  of  Places- 
Local  Differences  of  Pronunciation      95 


CHAPTER   IX 

The  Papuajis  of  Wakatimi— Colour— Hair— Eyes— Nose— Tattooing 
—Height— Dress— Widows'    Bo?mets— Growth    of   Childre?i— 


CONTENTS  xi 


PAGE 


Preponderance  of  Men— Number  of  Wives— Childhood— Stvim- 
ming  and  other  Games — Imitativeness  of  Children — The  Search 
for  Food — Women  as  Workers — Fishing  Nets — Other  Methods  of 
Fishing — An  Extract  from  Dampier 109 


CHAPTER   X 

Food  of  the  Papuans — Cassowaries — The  Native  Dog — Question  of 

Cannibalism  —  Village  Headman  —  The  Social  System   of   the        ___ 
Papuans  —  The  Family  —  Treatment   of   Women  —  Religion  — 
Weatlwr  Superstitions — Ceremony  to  avert  a  Flood — The  Pig — A 
Village  Festival—  Wailing  at  Deaths — Methods  of  Disposal  of  the 
Dead — No  Reverence  for  the  Pemains — Purchasing  Skulls  .         .124 


CHAPTER   XI 

Papuans^  Love  of  Music — Their  Concerts — A  Dancing  House — Carving 
— Papuans  as  Artists — Cat's  Cradle — Village  Sqjiabbles — The 
Part  of  the  Women —  Wooden  and  Stone  Clubs — Shell  Knives  and 
Stofie  Axes — Bows  arid  Arrows — Papuan  Marksmen — Spears — 
A  most  Primitive  People — Disease — Prospects  of  their  Civilisation     14] 


CHAPTER   Xn    ' 

The  Camp  at  Parimau — A  Plague  of  Beetles— fFirst  Discovery  of  the 
Tapiro  Pygmies — Papuans  as  Carriers —  We  visit  the  Clearing  of 
the  Tapiro — Remarkable  Clothing  of  Tapiro — Our  Relations  with 
the  Natives — System  of  Paynwit — Their  Confidefice  in  Us — 
Occasional  Thefts — A  Customary  Peace-ojfering— Papuans  as 
Naturalists 155 


CHAPTER   XHI 

Visit  of  Mr.  Lorentz — Arrival  of  Steatn  Launch — A  Sailor  Drowned 
— Our  Second  Batch  of  Coolies— Health  of  the  Gurkhas — Dayaks 
the  Best  Coolies — Sickness — Arrival  of  Motor  Boat — Cafnp  tinder 
Water — Expedition  fnoves  to  Parimau— Explorations  beyond  the 
Mimika — Leeches — Floods  on  the  Tiiaba  River — Overfioiving 
Rivers— The  Wataikwa— Cutting  a  Track         .        .        .        .169 


xii  CONTENTS 


CHAPTER   XIV 

PAGE 

The  Camp  at  the  Wataikwa  River — Malay  Coolies — '■'■Amok''' — A 
Double  Murder — A  Vieza  of  the  Snoiv  Mountains — Felling  Trees 
— Floods — Village  washed  Away —The  IVettest  Season — The 
Effects  of  Floods — Beri-beri — Arrival  of  C.  Grant — Departure 
of  W.  Goodfellow 184 


CHAPTER   XV 

Pygmies  visit  Pariinau—tD^scription  of  Tapiro  Fyginies — Colour — 
ffair — Clothing—  Ornaments — Netted  Bags — Flint  Knives — Bone 

'^  Daggers — Sleeping  Mats — Fire  Stick— Method  of  making  Fire — 
Cultivation  of  Tobacco — Matiner  of  Smoking — Bows  and  Arrows 
—  Village  of  the  Pygmies — Terraced  Ground — Houses  on  Piles — 
Village  Headman — Our  Efforts  to  see  the  Women— Language 
and  Voices — Their  Intelligence — Counting— Their  Geographical 
Distribution     7| 19^ 


CHAPTER  XVI 

Communication  with  Amboina  and  Mcrauke — Sail  in  the  '■'Valk" 
to  the  Utakwa  River — Removal  of  the  Dutch  Expedition —  Viczv 
of  Moufit  Carstensz — Dugongs — Crowded  Ship — Dayaks  and  Lire 
Stock — Sea-Snakes — Excitable  Convicts — The  Islatid  River — Its 
Great  Size — Another  Dutch  Expedition — Their  Achievements — 
Houses  in  the  Trees — Large  Village — Barn-like  Houses — Naked 
People— Shoofmg  Lime— Their  Skill  in  Paddling— Through  the 
Marianne  Straits  —  An  Extract  from  Carstensz  —  Merauke  — 
Trade  in  Copra — Botanic  Station — The  Mission— The  Ke  Island 
Boat-builders — The  Natives  of  Merauke  described — Arrival  of  our 
Third  Batch  of  Coolies— The  Feast  of  St.  Nicholas— Return  to 
Mimika 209 


CHAPTER   XVII 

Difficulty  of  Cross-country  Travel— Expedition  moves  towards  the 
Moimtains — Arrival  at  the  Roaka  River — Changing  Scenery — 
The  Impassable  Iwaka—A  Plucky  Gurkha—Building  a  Bridge 


CONTENTS  xlii 

PAGE 

—  IFe  start  into  the  Motmtains — Fording  Rivers — Flowers — Lack 
of  Water  on  Hillside — Curious  Vegetation — Otir  hig/iest  Point — 
A  wide  View — Rare  Birds — Coal — Uninhabitable  Country — 
Dreary  Jungle — Rarely  any  Beauty  —  Remarkable  Trees  — 
Occasional  Compensations 229 


CHAPTER   XVIII 

Departure  from  Parimau — Parting  Gifts — Mock  Lamentation — 
Rawling  explores  Kaniura  River — Start  for  the  IVania — Lose 
the  Propeller — A  Perilous  Anchorage — Unpleasant  Night — Leave 
the  Motor  Boat — Village  of  Nim'e — Arrival  of  ^^ Zwaan"  with 
Dayaks — T/uir  Departure —  Waifmgfor  the  Ship — Taking  Leave 
of  the  People  of  Wakatimi — Sail  from  Neiv  Guinea — KcLslands — 
Banda — Hospitality  of  the  Netherlands  Governfncnt — Lieute?iant 
Cramer — Sumbawa — Bali— Return  to  Sitigapore  and  England — 
One  or  two  Reflexions 246 


APPENDIX   A 

Notes  on  the  Birds  collected  by  the  B.  0.  U.  Expedition  to  Dutch  New 

Guinea.    By  JV.  R.  Ogilvie- Grant 263 


APPENDIX   B 
T/ie  Pygmy  Question.     By  Dr.  A.  C.  Haddon^  F.R.S.       .        .        .    303 

APPENDIX   C 

Notes  on  Languages  in  the  East  of  Netherlands  New  Guinea.      By 

Sidney  H.  Ray,  M.A 322 

Index     .        , 347 


LIST   OF   ILLUSTRATIONS 

{Except  vjhere  it  is  otherwise  stated^  the  illustrations  are  from  photographs  by  the  Author.) 
A  Tapiro  Pygmy Frontispiece 

FACING   PAGE 

Near  the  Mouth  of  the  Mimika  River 4 

A  Convict  Cooly  of  the  Dutch  Escort 12 

A  Malay  Cooly  from  Buton 12 

DoBO,  Aru  Islands 20 

Camp  of  the  Expedition  at  Wakatimi  (Photo  by  C.  G.  Rawling 

and  E.  S.  Marshall) 48 

A  House  for  Ceremonies,  Mimika  (Photo  by  C.  G.  Rawling  and 
E.  S.  Marshall) 48 

Making  Canoes 50 

Canoes,  Finished  and  Unfinished 54 

Making  "Atap"  for  Roofing 60 

Papuan  Woman  Canoeing  up  the  Mimika 64 

JANGBIR  AND  Herkajit,  (Photo  by  C.  G.  Rawling  and  E.  S.  Marshall)  68 

Hauling  Canoes  up  the  Mimika 70 

Typical  Papuans  of  Mimika 74 

Upper  Waters  of  the  Kapare  River 82 

Vegetation  on  the  Banks  of  the  Kapare  River  ....  86 

Papuan  Woman  carrying  Wooden  Bowl  of  Sago  ....  90 

Papuan  Houses  on  the  Mimika 96 

Papuan  of  the  Mimika 100 

Papuan  of  the  INIimika 100 


xvi  LIST    OF    ILLUSTRATIONS 

FACING  PAGB 

A  Papuan  Mother  and  Child lo^ 

Cicatrization  (Photo  by  C.  G.  Rawling  and  E.  S.  Marshall)         .  112 

Papuan  with  Face  Whitened  with  Sago  Powder         .       .       .112 

Women  of  Wakatimi              "4 

Papuan  Woman  and  Child 120 

A  Papuan  of  Mimika 128 

A  Papuan  of  Mimika i34 

Disposal  of  the  Dead  :  A  Coffin  on  Trestles     .       .       .       •  i39 

Splitting  Wood  with  Stone  Axe,  (Photo  by  C.  G.  Rawling  and 

E.  S.  Marshall) 148 

A  Tributary  Stream  of  the  Kapare  River 159 

Typical  Jungle,  Mimika  River .       .  178 

At  the  Edge  of  the  Jungle 182 

Camp  of  the  Expedition  at  Parimau 184 

The  Camp  at  Parimau  :  A  Precaution  against  Floods       .       .188 

The  Mimika  at  Parimau  :  Low  Water 190 

The  same  in  Flood 190 

A  Tapiro  Pygmy 196 

Making  Fire  (i) 200 

Making  Fire  (2) 202 

Wamberi  Merbiri 204 

A  House  of  the  Tapiro 206 

Mount  Tapiro  from  the  Village  of  the  Pygmies        .       •       .208 

Types  of  Tapiro  Pygmies 212 

A  Papuan  with  Two  Tapiro 216 

Natives  of  Merauke 226 

Looking  up  the  Mimika  from  Parimau 232 

Bridge  made  by  the  Expedition  across  the  Iwaka  River         .  234 

Looking  West  from  above  the  Iwaka  (Photo  by  C.  H.  B.  Grant)  238 
Cockscomb  Mountain  seen  from  Mt.  Godman  (Photo  by  C.  G. 

Rawling  and  E.  S.  Marshall) 23S 

Supports  of  a  Pandanus 242 

Buttressed  Trees 246 

Screw  Pines  (Pandanus) 250 


LIST   OF    ILLUSTRATIONS 


xvii 


FACING    PACE 


At  Sumbawa  Pesar 
Near  Buleling  . 


=56 


COLOURED   ILLUSTRATIONS 

{from  Drawings  by  G,  C.  Shortridge) 


Carved  Wooden  Clubs  and  Stone  Ci.uns 
Head-Dresses,  Worn  at  Ceremonies 
Stone  Axe,  Head-Rests  and  Drums    . 
Blades  of  Paddles,  and  Bamboo  Penis-Cases 
Bow,  Arrows  and  Spears       .... 
Ornaments  of  Papuans 


36 

78 
142 
14; 


MAPS 

A  Language  Map  of  Netherlands  New  Guinea 
Map  of  the  District  Visited  by  the  Expedition 


•    342 
at  End 


INTRODUCTION 

The  wonderful  fauna  of  New  Guinea,  especially  the 
marvellous  forms  of  Bird-  and  Insect-life  to  be  found  there, 
have  long  attracted  the  attention  of  naturalists  in  all  parts 
of  the  world.  The  exploration  of  this  vast  island  during 
recent  years  has  brought  to  light  many  extraordinary  and 
hitherto  unknown  forms,  more  particularly  new  Birds  of 
Paradise  and  Gardener  Bower-Birds  ;  but  until  recently  the 
central  portion  was  still  entirely  unexplored,  though  no 
part  of  the  globe  promised  to  yield  such  an  abun- 
dance of  zoological  treasures  to  those  prepared  to  face 
the  difficulties  of  penetrating  to  the  great  ranges  of  the 
interior. 

The  B.O.U.  Expedition,  of  which  the  present  work 
is  the  official  record,  originated  in  the  following  manner. 
For  many  years  past  I  had  been  trying  to  organise  an 
exploration  of  the  Snow  Mountains,  but  the  reported 
hostility  of  the  natives  In  the  southern  part  of  Dutch 
New  Guinea  and  the  risks  attending  such  an  undertaking, 
rendered  the  chances  of  success  too  small  to  justify  the 
attempt. 

It  was  in  1907  that  Mr.  Walter  Goodfellow,  well- 
known  as  an  experienced  traveller  and  an  accomplished 
naturalist,    informed    me    that    he    believed    a    properly 


XX  INTRODUCTION 

equipped  expedition  might  meet  with  success,  and  I 
entered  into  an  arrangement  with  him  to  lead  a  small 
zoological  expedition  to  explore  the  Snow  Mountains.  It 
so  happened,  however,  that  by  the  time  our  arrangements 
had  been  completed  in  December,  1908,  the  members  of 
the  British  Ornithologists'  Union,  founded  in  1858,  were 
celebrating  their  Jubilee,  and  it  seemed  fitting  that  they 
should  mark  so  memorable  an  occasion  by  undertaking  some 
great  zoological  exploration.  I  therefore  laid  my  scheme 
for  exploring  the  Snow  Mountains  before  the  meeting, 
and  suggested  that  it  should  be  known  as  the  Jubilee 
Expedition  of  the  B.O.U.,  a  proposal  which  was  received 
with  enthusiasm.  A  Committee  was  formed,  consisting  of 
Mr.  F.  du  Cane  Godman,  F.R.S.  (President  of  the 
B.O.U.),  Dr.  P.  L.  Sclater,  F.R.S.  (Editor  of  the  Idis\ 
Mr.  E.  G.  B.  Meade-Waldo,  Mr.  W.  R.  Ogilvie-Grant 
(Secretary),  and  Mr.  C.  E.  Fagan  (Treasurer).  At  the 
request  of  the  Royal  Geographical  Society  it  was  decided 
that  their  interests  should  also  be  represented,  and  that  a 
surveyor  and  an  assistant-surveyor,  to  be  selected  by  the 
Committee,  should  be  added,  the  Society  undertaking  to 
contribute  funds  for  that  purpose.  The  expedition  thus 
became  a  much  larger  one  than  had  been  originally  con- 
templated and  included : — 
Mr.  Walter  Goodfellow  (Leader), 
Mr.  Wilfred  Stalker  and  Mr.  Guy  C.  Shortridge  (Collectors 

of  Mammals,  Birds,  Reptiles,  etc.), 
Mr.  A.  F.  R.  Wollaston  (Medical  Officer  to  the  Expedition, 

Entomologist,  and  Botanist), 
Capt.  C.  G.  Rawling,  CLE.  (Surveyor), 
Dr.  Eric  Marshall  (Assistant-Surveyor  and  Surgeon). 


INTRODUCTION  xxi 

To  meet  the  cost  of  keeping  such  an  expedition  in  the 
field  for  at  least  a  year  it  was  necessary  to  raise  a  large 
sum  of  money,  and  this  I  was  eventually  able  to  do,  thanks 
chiefly  to  a  liberal  grant  from  His  Majesty's  Government, 
and  to  the  generosity  of  a  number  of  private  sub- 
scribers, many  of  whom  were  members  of  the  B.O.U, 
The  total  sum  raised  amounted  to  over  ^9000,  and 
though  it  is  impossible  to  give  here  the  names  of 
all  those  who  contributed,  I  would  especially  mention  the 
following  : — 

S.  G.  Asher,  Lord  Rothschild, 

E.  J.  Brook,  Hon.  L.  Walter  Rothschild, 
J.  Stewart  Clark,  Hon.  N.  Charles  Rothschild, 
Col.  Stephenson  Clarke,  Baron  and  Baroness  James 
Sir  Jeremiah  Colman,  A.  de  Rothschild, 

H.  J.  Elwes,  P.  L.  Sclater, 

F.  du  Cane  Godman,         P.  K.  Stothert, 
Sir  Edward  Grey,  Oldfield  Thomas, 

J.  H.  Gurney,  E.  G.  B.  Meade-Waldo, 

Sir  William  Ingram,  Rowland  Ward, 

Lord  Iveagh,  The  Proprietors  of  Count ly 

Mrs.  Charles  Jenkinson,        Life, 

E.  J.  Johnstone,  The  Royal  Society, 

Campbell  D.  Mackellar,  The     Royal     Geographical 

G.  A.  Macmillan,  Society, 

Mrs.  H.  A.  Powell,  The    Zoological    Society  of 

H.  C.  Robinson,  London. 

The  organization  and  equipment  of  this  large  expedi- 
tion caused  considerable  delay  and  it  was  not  until 
September,  1909,  that  the  members  sailed  from  England  for 
the  East.      Meanwhile  the  necessary  steps  were  taken  to 


xxii  INTRODUCTION 

obtain  the  consent  of  the  Netherlands  Government  to 
allow  the  proposed  expedition  to  travel  in  Dutch  New 
Guinea  and  to  carry  out  the  scheme  of  exploration.  Not 
only  was  this  permission  granted,  thanks  to  the  kindly 
help  of  Sir  Edward  Grey  and  the  British  Minister  at  the 
Hague,  but  the  Government  of  Holland  showed  itself 
animated  with  such  readiness  to  assist  the  expedition 
that  it  supplied  not  only  an  armed  guard  at  its  own 
expense,  but  placed  a  gunboat  at  the  disposal  of  the 
Committee  to  convey  the  party  from  Batavia  to  New 
Guinea. 

On  behalf  of  the  Committee  I  would  again  take  this 
opportunity  of  publicly  expressing  their  most  grateful 
thanks  to  the  Netherlands  Government  for  these  and  many 
other  substantial  acts  of  kindness,  which  were  shown  to 
the  members  of  the  expedition.  The  Peninsular  and 
Oriental  Steam  Navigation  Company  did  all  in  their 
power  to  further  the  interests  of  the  expedition,  and  to 
them  the  Committee  is  very  specially  indebted.  To  the 
proprietors  of  Country  Life  the  thanks  of  the  Com- 
mittee are  also  due  for  the  interest  and  sympathy  they 
have  displayed  towards  the  expedition  and  for  the  assist- 
ance they  have  given  in  helping  to  raise  funds  to  carry 
on  the  work  in  the  field. 

In  various  numbers  of  Country  Life,  issued  between 
the  i6th  of  April,  1910,  and  the  20th  of  May,  191 1,  a 
series  of  ten  articles  will  be  found  in  which  I  contributed 
a  oreneral  account  of  New  Guinea,  and  mentioned  some 
of  the  more  important  discoveries  made  by  the  members 
of  the  expedition  during  their  attempts  to  penetrate  to 
the  Snow  Mountains. 


INTRODUCTION  xxiii 

In  Appendix  A  to  the  present  volume  will  be  found 
a  general  account  of  the  ornithological  results.  A  detailed 
report  will  appear  elsewhere,  as  also,  it  is  hoped,  a 
complete  account  of  the  zoological  work  done  by  the 
expedition. 

As  the  reader  will  learn  from  Mr.  Wollaston's  book, 
the  great  physical  difficulties  of  this  unexplored  part  of 
New  Guinea  and  other  unforeseen  circumstances  rendered 
the  work  of  the  B.O.U.  Expedition  quite  exceptionally 
arduous ;  and  if  the  results  of  their  exploration  are  not  all 
that  had  been  hoped,  it  must  be  remembered  that  they 
did  all  that  was  humanly  possible  to  carry  out  the 
dangerous  task  with  which  they  had  been  entrusted. 
Their  work  has  added  vastly  to  our  knowledge  of  this 
part  of  New  Guinea,  and  though  little  collecting  was 
done  above  4000  feet,  quite  a  number  of  new,  and, 
in  many  cases,  remarkably  interesting  forms  were 
obtained. 

There  can  be  no  doubt  that  when  the  higher  ranges 
between  5000  and  10,000  feet  are  explored,  many  other 
novelties  will  be  discovered  and  for  this  reason  it  has 
been  thought  advisable  to  postpone  the  publication  of 
the  scientific  results  of  the  B.O.U.  Expedition  until  such 
time  as  the  second  expedition  under  Mr.  Wollaston  has 
returned  in   19 13. 

The  death  of  Mr.  Wilfred  Stalker  at  a  very  early 
period  of  the  expedition  was  a  sad  misfortune  and  his 
services  could  ill  be  spared  ;  his  place  was,  however,  very 
ably  filled  by  Mr.  Claude  H.  B.  Grant,  who  arrived  in 
New  Guinea  some  six  months  later. 

As   all  those  who  have   served   on   committees   must 


xxlv  INTRODUCTION 

know,  most  of  the  work  falls  on  one  or  two  individuals, 
and  I  should  like  here  to  express  the  thanks  which  we  owe 
to  our  Treasurer,  Mr.  C.  E.  Pagan,  for  the  admirable 
way  in  which  he  has  carried  out  his  very  difficult  task. 

W.    R.   OGILVIE-GRANT. 


PYGMIES   AND   PAPUANS 


PYGMIES   AND    PAPUANS 


CHAPTER  I 

The  British  Ornithologists'  Union — Members  of  the  Expedition- 
Voyage  to  Java — Choice  of  Rivers — Prosperity  of  Java — Half- 
castes — Obsequious  Javanese — The  Rijst-tafel — Customs  of  the 
Dutch — Buitcnzorg  Garden — Garoct. 

In  the  autumn  of  1858  a  small  party  of  naturalists,  most 
of  them  members  of  the  University  of  Cambridge  and 
their  friends  and  all  of  them  interested  in  the  study  of 
ornithology,  met  in  the  rooms  of  the  late  Professor  Alfred 
Newton  at  Magdalene  College,  Cambridge,  and  agreed  to 
found  a  society  with  the  principal  object  of  producing  a 
quarterly  Journal  of  general  ornithology.  The  Journal 
was  called  "  The  Ibis,"  and  the  Society  adopted  the  name 
of  British  Ornithologists'  Union,  the  number  of  members 
being  originally  limited  to  twenty. 

In  the  autumn  of  1908  the  Society,  which  by  that 
time  counted  four  hundred  and  seventy  members,  adopted 
the  suggestion,  made  by  Mr.  W.  R.  Ogilvie-Grant,  of 
celebrating  its  jubilee  by  sending  an  expedition  to  explore, 
chiefly  from  an  ornithological  point  of  view,  the  unknow^n 
range  of  Snow  Mountains  in  Dutch  New  Guinea.  A 
Committee,  whose  Chairman  was  Mr.  F.  D.  Godman, 
F.R.S.,  President  and  one  of  the  surviving  original 
members  of  the  Society,  was  appointed  to  organise  the 
expedition,     and     subscriptions     were     obtained    from 


2  PYGMIES  AND   PAPUANS 

members  and  their  friends.  The  remote  destination  of 
the  expedition  aroused  a  good  deal  of  pubhc  interest. 
The  Royal  Geographical  Society  expressed  a  desire  to 
share  in  the  enterprise,  and  it  soon  became  evident  that 
it  would  be  a  mistake  to  limit  the  object  of  the  expedition 
to  the  pursuit  of  birds  only.  Mr.  Walter  Goodfellow,  a 
naturalist  who  had  several  times  travelled  in  New  Guinea 
as  well  as  in  other  parts  of  the  world,  was  appointed 
leader  of  the  expedition.  Mr.  W.  Stalker  and  Mr.  G.  C. 
Shortridge,  both  of  whom  had  had  wide  experience  of 
collecting  in  the  East,  were  appointed  naturalists.  Capt. 
C.  G,  Rawling,  CLE.,  13th  Somersetshire  Light  Infantry, 
who  had  travelled  widely  in  Tibet  and  mapped  a  large 
area  of  unknown  territory  in  that  region,  was  appointed 
surveyor,  with  Mr.  E.  S.  Marshah,  M.R.C.S.,  L.R.C.P., 
who  had  just  returned  from  the  "  Furthest  South  "  with 
Sir  E.  H.  Shackleton,  as  assistant  surveyor  and  surgeon  ; 
and  the  present  writer,  who  had  been  medical  officer, 
botanist,  and  entomologist  on  the  Ruwenzori  Expedition 
of  1906-7,  undertook  the  same  duties  as  before. 

Prolonged  correspondence  between  the  Foreign  Office 
and  the  Dutch  Government  resulted,  thanks  largely  to 
the  personal  interest  of  Sir  Edward  Grey  and  Lord 
Acton,  British  Charge  d' Affaires  at  the  Hague,  in  per- 
mission being  granted  to  the  expedition  to  land  in  Dutch 
New  Guinea  on  or  after  January  i,  1910.  The  date 
of  landing  was  postponed  by  the  Government  until 
January  in  order  that  there  might  be  no  interference 
with  the  expedition  of  Mr.  H.  A.  Lorentz,  who  it  was 
hoped  would  be  the  first  to  reach  the  snow  in  New 
Guinea  by  way  of  the  Noord  River,  a  project  which  he 


VOYAGE   TO   JAVA  3 

successfully  accomplished  in  the  month  of  November, 
1909. 

On  October  29th  four  of  us  sailed  from  Marseilles  in 
the  P.  &  O.  s.s.  Marmora.     Mr.  Stalker  and  Mr.  Short- 
ridge,  who  had  already  proceeded  to  the  East,  joined  us 
later  at  Batavia  and  Amboina  respectively.     At  Singa- 
pore we  found  the  ten  Gurkhas,  ex-military  police,  who 
had  been  engaged  for  the  expedition  by  the  recruiting 
officer  at  Darjiling  ;    though  some  of  these  men  were 
useless  for  the  work  they  had  to  do,  the  others  did  in- 
valuable service  as  will  be  seen  later.     We  left  Singapore 
on  November  26th,  and  as  we  passed  through  the  narrow 
Riou  Straits  we  saw  the  remains  of  the  French  mail 
steamer  La  Seyne,  which  had  been  wrecked  there  with 
appalling  loss  of  life  a  few  days  earlier.     It  was  believed 
that  scores  of  persons  were  devoured  by  sharks  within 
a  few  minutes  of  the  accident  happening.     Two  days' 
steaming  in  the  Dutch  packet  brought    us  to  Batavia 
in  Java,  the  city  of  the  Government  of  the  Netherlands 
East  Indies. 

We  had  hoped  that  our  ten  Gurkhas  would  be  suffi- 
cient escort  for  the  expedition  and  that  we  could  do 
without  the  escort  of  native  soldiers  offered  to  us  by  the 
Dutch  Government,  but  the  local  authorities  decided 
that  the  escort  was  necessary  and  they  appointed  to 
command  it  Lieutenant  H.  A.  Cramer  of  the  Infantry, 
a  probationer  on  the  Staff  of  the  Dutch  East  Indian 
Army.  The  Government  also  undertook  to  transport 
the  whole  expedition,  men,  stores,  and  equipment,  from 
Java  to  New  Guinea.  The  undertaking  was  a  most 
generous  one  as  the  voyage  from  Batavia  by  mail  steamer 


4  PYGMIES  AND   PAPUANS 

to  Dobo  in  the  Aru  Islands  would  have  been  most  costly, 
and  from  there  we  should  have  been  obliged  to  charter 
a  special  steamer  to  convey  the  expedition  to  the  shores 
of  New  Guinea. 

When  we  left  England  we  had  the  intention  of  ap- 
proaching the  Snow^  Mountains  by  way  of  the  Utakwa 
River,  which  was  the  only  river  shown  by  the  maps 
obtainable  at  that  time  approaching  the  mountains. 
After  a  consultation  with  the  Military  and  Geographical 
Departments  at  Batavia  it  was  decided  that,  owing  to 
the  bad  accounts  which  had  been  received  of  the  Utakwa 
River  and  the  comparatively  favourable  reports  of  the 
Mimika  River,  the  latter  should  be  chosen  as  the  point 
of  our  entry  into  the  country.  This  decision,  though  we 
little  suspected  it  at  the  time,  effectually  put  an  end  to 
our  chance  of  reaching  the  Snow  Mountains. 

During  the  month  of  December,  while  stores  were 
being  accumulated,  and  the  steamer  was  being  prepared 
for  our  use,  we  had  leisure  to  visit,  and  in  the  case  of 
some  of  us  to  revisit,  some  of  the  most  interesting  places 
in  Java.  A  large  German  ship  filled  with  fourteen 
hundred  American  tourists  arrived  at  Batavia  whilst  we 
were  there,  and  the  passengers  "  did  "  Java,  apparently 
to  their  satisfaction,  in  forty-eight  hours.  But  a  tourist 
with  more  time  could  find  occupation  for  as  many  days 
and  still  leave  much  to  be  seen.  Germans  and  Americans 
outnumber  English  visitors  by  nearl}''  fifty  to  one,  and 
it  is  to  be  deplored  that  Englishmen  do  not  go  there  in 
larger  numbers,  for  they  would  see  in  Java,  not  to  mention 
the  beauty  of  its  scenery,  perhaps  the  most  successful 
tropical  dependency  in  the  world,  a  vast  monument  to 


NEAR    THE    MOUTH    OF    THE    iMMlKA    RIVER 


PROSPERITY    OF    JAVA  5 

the  genius  of  Sir  Stamford  Raftlcs,  who  laid  the  founda- 
tion of  its  prosperit}^  less  than  one  hundred  years  ago. 

Some  idea  of  the  progress  which  has  been  made  may 
be  learnt  from  the  fact  that,  whereas  at  the  beginning 
of  the  last  century  the  population  numbered  about  four 
miUions,  there  are  to-day  nearly  ten  times  that  number. 
Wherever  you  go  you  see  excellent  roads,  clean,  and 
well-ordered  villages  and  a  swarming  peasant  population, 
quiet  and  industrious  and  apparently  contented  with 
their  lot. 

There  are  between  thirty  and  forty  volcanoes  in  the 
island,  many  of  them  active,  and  the  soil  is  extra- 
ordinarily, rich  and  productive,  three  crops  in  the  rice 
districts  being  harvested  in  rather  less  than  two  years. 
So  fertile  is  the  land  that  in  many  places  the  steepest 
slopes  of  the  hills  have  been  brought  under  cultivation 
by  an  ingenious  system  of  terracing  and  irrigation  in 
such  a  way  that  the  higher  valleys  present  the  appear- 
ance of  great  amphitheatres  rising  tier  above  tier  of 
brilliantly  green  young  rice  plants  or  of  drooping  yellow 
heads  of  ripening  grain.  The  tea  plantations  and  the 
fields  of  sugar-cane  in  Central  Java  not  less  than  the 
rice-growing  districts  impress  one  with  the  unceasing 
industry  of  the  people  and  the  inexhaustible  wealth  of 
the  island. 

One  of  the  features  of  life  in  the  Dutch  East  Indies, 
which  first  strikes  the  attention  of  an  English  visitor,  is 
the  difference  in  the  relation  between  Europeans  and 
natives  from  those  which  usually  obtain  in  British 
possessions  as  shown  by  the  enormous  number  of  half- 
castes.     Whilst  we  were  still  at  Batavia  the  feast  of  the 


6  PYGMIES  AND   PAPUANS 

Eve  of  St.  Nicholas,  which  takes  the  place  of  our  Christmas, 
occurred.  In  the  evening  the  entire  "  white  "  popula- 
tion indulged  in  a  sort  of  carnival ;  the  main  streets 
and  restaurants  w^ere  crowded,  bands  played  and  car- 
riages laden  with  parents  and  their  children  drove  slowly 
through  the  throng.  The  spectacle,  a  sort  of  "  trooping 
of  the  colours,"  was  a  most  interesting  one  to  the  on- 
looker, for  one  saw  often  in  the  same  family  children 
showing  every  degree  of  colour  from  the  fairest  Dutch 
hair  and  complexion  to  the  darkest  Javanese.  It  is 
easy  to  understand  how  this  strong  mixture  of  races  has 
come  about,  when  one  learns  that  Dutchmen  who  come 
out  to  the  East  Indies,  whether  as  civilian  or  military 
officials  or  as  business  men,  almost  invariably  stay  for 
ten  years  without  returning  to  Europe.  They  become 
in  that  time  more  firmly  attached  to  the  country  than  is 
the  case  in  colonies  where  people  go  home  at  shorter 
intervals,  and  it  is  not  uncommon  to  meet  Dutchmen 
who  have  not  returned  to  Holland  for  thirty  or  forty 
years.  It  is  not  the  custom  to  send  children  back  to 
Europe  when  they  reach  the  school  age ;  there  are 
excellent  government  schools  in  all  the  larger  towns, 
and  it  often  happens  that  men  and  women  grow  up  and 
marry  who  have  never  been  to  Europe  in  their  lives. 
Thus  it  can  be  seen  how  a  large  half-caste  population  is 
likely  to  be  formed.  The  half-castes  do  not,  as  in  British 
India,  form  a  separate  caste,  but  are  regarded  as  Euro- 
peans, and  there  are  many  instances  of  men  having  more 
or  less  of  native  blood  in  their  veins  reaching  the  highest 
civilian  and  military  rank. 

One  or  two  curious  relics  of  former  times,  which  the 


THE    RIJST-TAFEL  7 

visitor  to  Java  notices,  are  worth  recording  because  they 
show  the  survival  of  a  spirit  that  has  ahnost  completely 
disappeared  from  our  own  dominions.  When  a  European 
walks,  or  as  is  more  usual,  drives  along  the  country 
roads,  the  natives  whom  he  meets  remove  their  hats 
from  their  heads  and  their  loads  from  their  shoulders  and 
crouch  humbly  by  the  roadside.  Again,  on  the  railways 
the  ticket  examiner  approaches  with  a  suppliant  air 
and  begs  to  see  your  ticket,  while  he  holds  out  his  right 
hand  for  it  grasping  his  right  wrist  with  his  left  hand. 
In  former  times  when  a  man  held  out  his  right  hand  to 
give  or  take  something  from  you  his  left  hand  was  free 
to  stab  you  with  his  kris.  Nowadays  only  a  very  few 
privileged  natives  in  Java  are  allowed  to  carry  the 
kris. 

Another  very  noticeable  feature  of  life  in  the  Dutch 
East  Indies,  which  immediately  attracts  the  attention  of 
a  stranger,  is  the  astonishing  number  of  excessively 
corpulent  Europeans.  If  you  travel  in  the  morning  in 
the  steam  tramcar  which  runs  from  the  residential  part 
of  Batavia  to  the  business  quarter  of  the  town,  you  will 
see  as  many  noticeably  stout  men  as  you  will  see  in 
the  City  of  London  in  a  year,  or,  as  I  was  credibly 
informed,  as  you  will  see  in  the  city  of  Amsterdam  in  a 
month.  It  is  fairly  certain  that  this  unhealthy  state  of 
body  of  a  large  number  of  Europeans  may  be  attributed 
to  the  institution  of  the  Rijst-tafel,  the  midday  meal 
of  a  large  majority  of  the  Dutchmen  in  the  East. 

This  custom  is  so  remarkable  that  it  is  w^orth  while 
to  give  a  description  of  it.  The  foundation  of  the  meal, 
as  its  name  implies,  is  rice.     You  sit  at  table  with  a 


8  PYGMIES  AND   PAPUANS 

soup  plate  in  front  of  you,  a  smaller  flat  plate  beside  it 
and  a  spoon,  a  knife  and  a  fork.  The  first  servant  brings 
a  large  bowl  of  rice  from  which  you  help  yourself  liberally. 
The  second  brings  a  kind  of  vegetable  stew  which  you 
pour  over  the  heap  of  rice.  Then  follows  a  remarkable 
procession  ;  I  have  myself  seen  at  an  hotel  in  Batavia 
fourteen  different  boys  bringing  as  many  different  dishes, 
and  I  have  seen  stalwart  Teutons  taking  samples  from 
every  dish.  These  boys  bring  fish  of  various  sorts  and 
of  various  cookeries,  bones  of  chickens  cooked  in  different 
ways  and  eggs  of  various  ages,  and  last  of  all  comes  a 
boy  bearing  a  large  tray  covered  with  many  different 
kinds  of  chutneys  and  sauces  from  which  the  connoisseur 
chooses  three  or  four.  The  more  solid  and  bony  portions 
find  a  space  on  the  small  flat  plate,  the  others  are  piled 
in  the  soup  plate  upon  the  rice.  As  an  experience  once 
or  twice  the  Rijst-tafel  is  interesting  ;  but  as  a  daily 
custom  it  is  an  abomination.  Even  when,  as  in  private 
houses,  the  number  of  dishes  is  perhaps  not  more  than 
three  or  four,  the  main  foundation  of  the  meal  is  a  solid 
pile  of  rice,  which  is  not  at  all  a  satisfactory  diet  for 
Europeans.  The  Rijst-tafel  is  not  a  traditional  native 
custom  but  a  modern  innovation,  and  there  is  a  tendency 
among  the  more  active  members  of  the  community  to 
replace  it  by  a  more  rational  meal. 

The  houses  of  the  Europeans  are  of  the  bungalow  type 
with  high-pitched  roofs  of  red  tiles  and  surrounded  by 
wide  verandahs,  which  are  actually  the  living  rooms  of 
the  house.  The  Dutch  are  good  gardeners  and  are 
particularly  fond  of  trees,  which  they  plant  close  about 
their  houses  and  so  ensure  a  pleasant  shade,  though 


CUSTOMS   OF   THE   DUTCH  9 

they  harbour  rather  more  mosquitoes  and  other  insects 
than  is  pleasant.  In  strange  contrast  with  the  scrupulous 
cleanliness  of  the  houses  and  the  tidiness  of  the  streets, 
you  will  see  in  Batavia  a  state  of  things  which  it  is  hard 
to  reconcile  with  the  usual  commonsense  of  the  Dutch. 
Through  the  middle  of  the  town  runs  a  canalised  river 
of  red  muddy  water,  partly  sewer  and  partly  bathing 
place  and  so  on  of  the  natives,  and  in  it  are  washed  all 
the  clothes  of  the  population,  both  native  and  European. 
Your  clothes  return  to  you  white  enough,  but  you  put 
them  on  with  certain  qualms  when  you  remember  whence 
they  came.  The  town  has  an  excellent  supply  of  pure 
water,  and  it  is  astonishing  that  the  authorities  do  not 
put  an  end  to  this  most  insanitary  practice. 

Dutch  people  in  the  East  Indies  have  modified  their 
habits,  especially  in  the  matter  of  clothing,  to  suit  the 
requirements  of  the  climate,  and  while  they  have  to  some 
extent  sacrificed  elegance  to  comfort,  their  costume  is 
at  all  events  more  rational  than  that  of  many  English- 
men in  the  East,  who  cling  too  affectionately  to  the 
fashions  of  Europe  and  often  wear  too  much  clothing. 
The  men,  who  do  the  greater  part  of  the  day's  w^ork 
between  seven  in  the  morning  and  one  o'clock,  wear  a 
plain  white  suit  of  cotton  or  linen.  The  afternoon  is 
spent  in  taking  a  siesta  and  at  about  five  o'clock  they  go 
to  their  clubs  or  other  amusements  in  the  same  sort  of 
attire  as  in  the  morning.  The  ladies,  except  in  the 
larger  towns  where  European  dress  is  the  custom,  appear 
in  public  during  the  greater  part  of  the  day  in  a  curiously 
simple  costume.  The  upper  part  of  the  body  is  clothed 
in  a  short  white  cotton  jacket,  below  which  the  coloured 


10  PYGMIES  AND   PAPUANS 

native  sarong  extends  midway  down  the  leg.  Low 
slippers  are  worn  on  bare  feet,  the  hair  hangs  undressed 
down  the  back  and  the  costume  is  usually  completed 
by  an  umbrella.  It  must  be  admitted  that  the  effect 
is  not  ornamental,  but  the  costume  is  doubtless  cool  and 
comfortable,  and  it  prevents  any  risk  there  might  be 
of  injury  to  the  health  from  wearing  an  excessive  amount 
of  clothing.  They  appear  more  conventionally  dressed 
about  five  o'clock,  when  the  social  business  of  the  day 
begins.  The  ladies  pay  calls  while  the  men  meet  at  the 
club  and  play  cards  until  an  uncomfortably  late  dinner 
at  about  nine  o'clock. 

About  an  hour's  journey  by  railway  from  Batavia 
is  the  hill  station  of  Buitenzorg.  Although  it  is  hardly 
more  than  eight  hundred  feet  above  the  sea  the  climate 
is  noticeably  cooler  (the  mean  annual  temperature  is 
75°),  and  one  feels  immediately  more  vigorous  than 
down  in  the  low  country.  The  palace  of  the  Governor 
General,  formerl}^  the  house  of  Sir  Stamford  Raffles, 
stands  at  the  edge  of  the  Botanic  Garden,  which  alone, 
even  if  you  saw  nothing  else,  would  justify  a  visit  to 
Java.  Plants  from  all  the  Tropics  grow  there  in  the 
best  possible  conditions,  and  you  see  them  to  advantage 
as  you  never  can  in  their  natural  forest  surroundings, 
where  the  trunks  of  the  trees  are  obscured  by  a  tangle 
of  undergrowth.  Every  part  of  the  garden  is  worth 
exploring,  but  one  of  the  most  curious  and  interesting 
sections  is  the  collection  of  Screw-pines  {Pandamts) 
and  Cycads,  which  have  a  weirdly  antediluvian  appear- 
ance. Another  very  beautiful  sight  is  the  ponds  of 
Water-lilies  from    different    parts    of   the  world.     The 


BOTANIC  GARDEN  ii 

native  gardener  in  charge  of  them  informed  me  that  the 
different  species  have  different  and  definite  hours  for 
the  opening  and  closing  of  their  flowers.  I  tested  his 
statement  in  two  instances  and  found  the  flowers  almost 
exactl}'  punctual.  There  was  no  cloud  in  the  sky  nor 
appearance  of  any  change  in  the  weather,  and  the  reason 
for  this  behaviour  is  not  easy  to  explain.  At  Sindanglaya 
in  the  mountains  a  few  miles  distant  is  an  offshoot  from 
the  Buitenzorg  garden,  where  plants  of  a  more  temperate 
climate  flourish,  and  experiments  are  made  on  plants 
of  economic  value  to  the  country, 

A  few  hours'  journey  east  from  Buitenzorg  is  Garoet 
(2,300  feet  above  the  sea),  which  hes  in  a  beautiful  fertile 
valley  surrounded  by  forest-covered  mountains.  The 
climate  is  an  almost  ideal  one,  the  nights  are  cool  and  the 
days  are  not  too  hot.  A  very  remarkable  feature  of 
the  country  about  Garoet  is  the  great  flocks,  or  rather 
droves,  of  ducks  which  you  meet  being  driven  along 
the  roads  from  the  villages  to  their  pastures  in  the 
rice  fields.  These  ducks  differ  from  the  ordinary  domestic 
duck  in  their  extraordinary  erect  attitude,  from  which 
they  have  been  well  called  Penguin  ducks.  Whether 
their  upright  posture  is  due  to  their  walking  or  not  I 
do  not  know,  but  they  are  excellent  walkers  and  are 
sometimes  driven  long  distances  to  their  feeding  grounds. 
When  a  duck  is  tired  and  lags  behind,  the  boy  who 
herds  them  picks  it  up  by  the  neck,  and  you  may  some- 
times see  him  walking  along  with  a  bunch  of  two  or 
three  ducks  in  either  hand. 

Others  of  our  party  visited  Djokjakarta  and  the 
Buddhist  Temples  of  Boro-Boder  in  Central  Java  and  the 


12  PYGMIES  AND   PAPUANS 

mountain  resort  of  Tosari  in  the  volcanic  region  of 
Eastern  Java.  Tosari  is  more  than  live  thousand  feet 
above  the  sea,  and  is  of  great  value  to  the  Dutch  as  a 
sanatorium  for  soldiers  and  civilians  from  all  parts  of 
the  Archipelago.  The  rainfall  is  comparatively  scanty 
and  the  climate  is  like  that  of  Southern  Europe  at  its 
best. 


I 


CHAPTER   II 

Expedition  leaves  Java — The  "  Nias  " — Escort — Macassar — Raja  of 
Goa — Amhoina — Corals  and  Fishes — Amhonese  Christians — Dutch 
Clubs — Dobo. 

On  December  21st  we  left  Batavia,  and  on  Christmas 
Day,  1909,  we  sailed  from  Soerabaja  in  the  Government 
steamer  Nias,  Capt.  Hondius  van  Hcrwerden.  The 
Nias,  a  ship  of  about  six  hundred  tons,  formerly  a  gun- 
boat in  the  Netherlands  Indies  Marine,  is  now  stripped 
of  her  two  small  guns  and  is  used  by  the  Government 
as  a  special  service  vessel.  Her  last  commission  before 
embarking  us  has  been  to  transport  Mr.  Lorentz  on  his 
expedition  to  the  Noord  River  in  New  Guinea  three 
months  earlier.  Now  she  was  full  to  the  brim  of  stores 
and  gear  of  all  sorts  and  her  decks  were  crowded  with 
men.  There  were  five  of  us  and  ten  Gurkhas.  The 
Dutch  escort  consisted  of  Lieutenant  H.  A.  Cramer  in 
command,  two  Dutch  sergeants  and  one  Dutch  medical 
orderly,  forty  native  Javanese  soldiers  and  sixty 
convicts,  most  of  them  Javanese.  The  convicts  were 
nearly  all  of  them  men  with  more  or  less  long 
sentences  of  imprisonment  and  some  of  them  were 
murderers  in  chains,  which  were  knocked  off  them 
to  their  great  relief  the  day  after  we  left  Soerabaja. 
One  of  the  best  of  the  convicts,  a  native  of  Bali,  was 
a     murderer     (see     illustration,     page    12),     who     did 


14  PYGMIES  AND   PAPUANS 

admirable    service    to    the    expedition,  and  was   subse- 
quently promoted  to  be  jjtandoer* 

At  Macassar  we  stopped  a  few  hours  only  to  add  to 
our  already  excessive  deck  cargo,  and  to  hear  a  little 
of  the  gossip  of  Celebes.  I  was  interested  to  learn  that 
the  power  of  the  Raja  of  Goa,  whom  I  had  visited  a 
few  years  before,  had  come  to  an  end.  That  monarch 
was  an  interesting  survivor  of  the  old  native  princes 
of  the  island.  His  kingdom  extended  to  within  three 
miles  of  Macassar,  and  he  was  apparently  not  answerable 
to  any  law  or  authority  but  his  own.  The  place  became 
a  refuge  for  criminals  fleeing  from  justice,  and  it  was 
a  disagreeable  thorn  in  the  side  of  the  Dutch  authorities, 
who  were  at  last  compelled  to  send  a  small  expedition 
to  annex  the  country.  The  Raja  himself,  it  was  said, 
came  to  a  very  unpleasant  end  in  a  ditch. 

There  had  also  been  a  small  war  on  the  east  side  of 
the  island,  which  resulted  in  the  pacification  of  the  large 
and  prosperous  district  of  Boni.  Now  the  Island  of 
Celebes,  which  only  a  few  years  ago  was  dominated  by 
savage  tribes  and  where  it  was  unsafe  for  an  European 
to  travel,  has  been  almost  completely  brought  within 
the  Dutch  administration,  and  it  seems  likely  that  its 
enormous  mineral  and  agricultural  wealth  will  soon 
make  it  one  of  the  most  prosperous  islands  of  the 
Archipelago. 

On  December  30th  we  anchored  in  the  harbour  of 

Amboina,   where   we   were  joined  by  the  last  member 

of  the  expedition,   Mr.  W.  Stalker,  who  had  been  for 

some  months  collecting  birds  in   Ceram,   and  recently 

*  i.e.  leader  of  a  gang. 


AMBOINA  15 

had  been  engaged  in  Amboina  in  recruiting  coolies  lor 
the  expedition.  It  had  been  expected  that  he  would 
go  to  engage  coolies  in  the  Ke  Islands,  a  group  of  islands 
about  three  hundred  miles  to  the  south-east  of  Amboina, 
where  the  natives  are  more  sturdy  and  less  sophisticated 
than  the  people  of  Amboina  ;  but  circumstances  had 
prevented  him  from  going  there,  and  we  had  to  put  up 
with  the  very  inferior  Ambonese,  a  fact  which  at  the 
outset  seriously  handicapped  the  expedition.  We  stayed 
for  two  days  at  Amboina,  or,  as  the  Dutch  always  call 
it,  Ambon,  bu3dng  necessary  stores  and  making  arrange- 
ments with  the  Dutch  authorities,  who  agreed  to  send 
a  steamer  every  two  months,  if  the  weather  were  favour- 
able, to  bring  men  and  further  supplies  to  us  in  New 
Guinea. 

Amboina  is  an  exceedingly  pretty  place,  and  a  very 
favourite  station  of  the  Dutch  on  account  of  its  climate, 
which  is  remarkably  equable,  and  its  freedom  from 
strong  winds  or  excessive  rain.  There  is  a  volcano  at 
the  north  end  of  the  island  which  has  slumbered  since 
1824,  and  the  place  is  very  subject  to  earthquakes.  A 
very  serious  one  occurred  as  recently  as  1902,  which 
destroyed  hundreds  of  lives  and  houses,  whose  walls 
may  still  be  seen  lying  flat  in  the  gardens,  but  as  in  other 
volcanic  places  the  inhabitants  have  conveniently  short 
memories,  and  the  place  has  been  re-built  ready  for 
another  visitation. 

Like  most  of  the  other  Dutch  settlements  in  the 
East,  Amboina  has  been  laid  out  on  a  rectangular  plan, 
but  the  uniformity  of  the  arrangement  is  saved  from 
being  monotonous  by  the  tree-planting  habits  of  the 


i6  PYGMIES  AND   PAPUANS 

Dutch.  The  roads  and  open  spaces  are  shaded  by 
Kanari  trees,  which  also  produce  a  most  dehcious  nut, 
and  the  gardens  are  hedged  with  flowering  Hibiscus  and 
Oleander  and  gaudy-leafed  Crotons.  Roses,  as  well  as 
many  other  temperate  plants,  in  addition  to  "  hot- 
house "  plants,  flourish  in  the  gardens,  and  the  verandahs 
of  the  houses  themselves  are  often  decorated  with 
orchids  from  Ceram  and  the  Tenimber  Islands.  Birds 
arc  not  common  in  the  town  itself  except  in  captivity, 
and  you  see,  especiahy  in  the  gardens  of  the  natives' 
houses,  parrots  and  lories,  and  pigeons  from  the  Moluccas 
and  New  Guinea,  and  you  may  even  hear  the  call  of  the 
Greater  bird  of  paradise.  Attracted  by  the  many 
flowering  plants  are  swarms  of  butterflies,  some  of  them 
of  great  beauty.  One  of  the  most  gorgeous  of  these  is 
the  large  blue  Papilio  ulysses,  which  floats  from  flower 
to  flower  hke  a  piece  of  living  blue  sky. 

The  harbour  of  Amboina  is  a  wide  deep  channel, 
which  nearly  divides  the  island  into  two,  and  in  it  are 
the  wonderful  sea-gardens,  which  aroused  the  enthusiasm 
of  Mr.  Wallace.*  They  are  not  perhaps  so  wonderful 
as  the  sea-gardens  at  Banda  and  elsewhere,  but  to  those 
who  have  never  seen  such  things  before  the  many 
coloured  sea-weeds  and  corals  and  shells  and  shoals  of 
fantastic  fishes  seen  through  crystal  water  are  a  source 
of  unfaihng  interest.  The  sea  is  crowded  with  fish  of 
every  size  and  form  and  colour.  Nearly  eight  hundred 
species  have  been  described  from  Ambonese  waters, 
and  it  is  worth  while  to  visit  the  market  in  the  early 
morning,  when  the  night's  haul  is  brought  in,  and  before 
*  Malay  Archipelago,  Chapter  XX. 


THE  AMBONESE  17 

the  very  evanescent  colours  of  the  fish  have  faded. 
Nearly  every  man  in  the  place  is  a  fisherman  during 
some  part  of  the  day  or  night,  and  nobody  need  starve 
who  has  the  energy  to  throw  a  baited  hook  into  the 
sea.  Most  of  the  fish  arc  caught  either  in  nets  very 
similar  to  our  seine-net  or  in  more  elaborate  traps 
which  are  mostly  constructed  by  Chinamen. 

The  market  is  also  worth  visiting  to  see  the  variety 
of  fruit  and  spices  that  grow  in  the  island.  Amboina 
has  a  peculiar  form  of  banana,  the  Pisang  Ambon,  with 
white  flesh,  dark  green  skin,  and  a  very  peculiar  flavour. 
Besides  this  there  are  many  other  kinds  of  bananas, 
mangoes,  mangostines,  guavas,  sour-manilla,  soursop, 
pineapples,  kanari  nut,  nutmeg,  cloves,  and  a  small  but 
very  delicious  fruit,  the  garnderia. 

The  native  inhabitants  of  Amboina  are  a  curious 
mixture  of  the  aboriginal  native  with  Portuguese,  Dutch, 
and  Malay  blood.  There  is  a  strong  predominance  of 
the  Portuguese  type,  which  shows  itself  in  the  faces  of 
many  of  the  people,  who  still  use  words  of  Portuguese 
origin,  and  preserve  many  Portuguese  names.  A  large 
number  of  them  are  Christians,  and  they  rejoice  in  such 
names  as  Josef,  Esau,  Jacob,  Petrus  and  Domingos. 

New  Year's  Eve  was  celebrated  by  a  confusion  of 
fireworks  and  gun-firing,  which  lasted  from  sunset 
until  the  small  hours  of  1910,  and  by  an  afternoon 
service  in  the  Church  attended  by  many  hundreds  of 
people.  The  women,  who  are  usually  in  Amboina 
dressed  entirely  in  black,  wore  for  the  occasion  long 
white  coats,  black  sarongs  and  white  stockings.  The 
men  went  more  variously  clad  in  straw  hats,  dinner 


i8  PYGMIES  AND   PAPUANS 

jackets,  low  waistcoats,  white  or  coloured  starched 
shirts,  coloured  ties,  black  trousers,  and  brown  boots. 
We  were  interested  to  find  that  the  great  bulk  of  the 
stuff  from  which  clothes  are  made  in  Amboina  is  im- 
ported from  England,  and  we  were  assured  by  a  merchant 
who  was  interested  in  the  trade  that  a  man  can  dress 
himself  in  so-called  European  fashion  as  cheaply  in 
Amboina  as  he  can  in  this  countr3\ 

An  agreeable  feature  of  life  at  Amboina,  as  at  other 
places  in  the  Netherlands  Indies,  is  the  hospitality  of 
the  Dutch  people.  A  stranger  of  at  all  respectable 
social  position  is  expected  to  introduce  himself  to  the 
club,  and  the  residents  in  the  place  feel  genuinel}^  hurt 
if  he  fails  to  do  so.  The  Societat,  or  "  Soce,"  as  it  is 
everywhere  called,  is  more  of  a  cafe  than  a  club  accord- 
ing to  English  ideas,  and  it  exists  for  conviviality  and 
gossiping  rather  than  for  newspaper  reading  and  card 
playing.  It  is  not  even  a  restaurant  in  the  sense  that 
many  English  clubs  are  ;  the  members  meet  there  in 
the  evening  but  they  invariably  dine,  as  they  lunch, 
at  home.  On  the  verandah  in  front  of  the  club  is  a 
round  table,  at  which  sit  after  dark  large  men  in  white 
clothes  smoking  cigars  and  drinking  various  drinks. 
The  foreigner  approaches  with  what  courage  he  may 
and  introduces  himself  by  name  to  the  party  severally. 
They  make  a  place  for  him  in  the  circle  and  there- 
after, with  a  courtesy  which  a  group  of  Englishmen 
would  find  difiiculty  in  imitating,  they  continue  the 
conversation  in  the  language  of  the  foreigner.  An 
Englishman  is  at  first  a  little  staggered  by  the  number 
of  pait  {i.e.  bitter,  the  name  for  gin  and  bitters)  and 


THE  ARAFURA  SEA.  19 

other  drinks  that  his  hosts  consume,  and  which  he  is 
expected  to  consume  also,  but,  as  I  remember  noticing 
in  the  case  of  their  neighbours  the  Belgians  in  the  Congo, 
it  appears  to  do  them  httle  if  any  harm. 

In  the  larger  places  there  is  a  concert  at  the  club 
once  or  twice  a  week — at  Bandoeng  in  Java  I  heard 
a  remarkably  good  string  quartette — and  in  almost 
every  place  there  is  a  ladies'  night  at  the  club  once  a 
week,  when  the  children  come  to  dance  to  the  music 
of  a  piano  or  gramophone,  as  the  case  may  be.  It  is 
a  pretty  sight  and  one  to  make  one  ponder  on  the  possible 
harmony  of  nations — "  Harmonic  "  is  commonly  a  name 
for  the  clubs  in  the  Netherlands  Indies— to  see  small  Dutch 
children  dancing  with  little  half-castes  and,  as  I  have 
more  than  once  seen,  with  little  Celestials  and  Japanese. 

We  left  Amboina  on  New  Year's  Day  in  a  deluge  of 
rain,  and  all  that  day  we  were  in  sight  of  the  forest- 
covered  heights  of  Ceram  to  the  North.  On  January 
2nd  we  passed  Banda  at  dawn,  and  at  sunset  we  got  a 
view  of  the  most  South-west  point  of  New  Guinea, 
Cape  Van  de  Bosch.  On  the  morning  of  January  3rd 
we  dropped  anchor  in  the  harbour  of  Dobo  in  the  Aru 
Islands.  For  several  miles  before  we  arrived  there  we 
had  noticed  a  marked  difference  in  the  appearance  of 
the  sea.  Since  we  left  Batavia  we  had  been  saihns 
over  a  deep  sea  of  great  oceanic  depths,  sometimes  of 
two  or  three  thousand  fathoms,  which  was  always  clear 
and  blue  or  black  as  deep  seas  are.  Approaching  the 
Aru  Islands  we  came  into  the  shoal  waters  of  the  Arafura 
Sea,  which  is  yellowish  and  opaque  and  never  exceeds 
one  hundred  fathoms  in  depth.     We  were,  in  fact,  sailing 


20  PYGMIES  AND   PAPUANS 

over  that  scared}^  submerged  land,  which  joins  the  Am 
Islands  and  New  Guinea  with  the  Continent  of  Australia. 

Dobo  has  doubtless  changed  a  good  deal  in  appearance 
since  Ur.  Wallace  visited  it  in  1857,  ^s  the  majority 
of  the  houses  are  now  built  of  corrugated  iron  in  place 
of  the  palm  leaves  of  fifty  years  ago  ;  but  it  cannot 
have  increased  greatly  in  size,  for  it  is  built  on  a  small 
spit  of  coral  sand  beyond  which  are  mangrove  swamps 
where  building  is  impossible.  The  reason  of  its  exist- 
ence has  also  changed  since  the  time  when  it  was  the 
great  market  of  all  the  neighbouring  islands,  for  now 
it  exists  solely  as  the  centre  of  a  pearl-fishing  industry 
controlled  by  an  Australian  Company,  the  Celebes 
Trading  Company.  Messrs.  Clarke  &  Ross  Smith,  the 
heads  of  this  business,  rendered  us  assistance  in  very 
many  ways,  and  the  sincerest  thanks  of  the  expedition 
are  due  to  them.  The  primary  object  of  pearl-fishing 
is  of  course  the  collection  of  pearl-shell  which  is  used  for 
knife  handles,  buttons,  and  a  hundred  other  things. 
Shell  of  a  good  quality  is  worth  more  than  £200  a  ton. 
The  pearls,  which  are  occasionally  found,  are  merely 
accidentals  and  profitable  extras  of  the  trade.  Some 
idea  of  the  extent  of  this  business  may  be  learnt  from  the 
fact  that  more  than  one  hundred  boats  employing  about 
five  thousand  men  are  occupied  in  the  various  fleets. 

We  left  Dobo,  the  last  place  of  civilisation  that  many 
of  us  were  to  see  for  a  year  and  more,  on  January  3rd  ; 
and  here,  as  we  are  almost  within  sight  as  it  were  of  our 
destination,  it  may  be  opportune  to  state  briefly  the 
geographical  position  of  New  Guinea,  and  to  give  a  short 
account  of  its  exploration. 


■ .^.Hll.,  ....^ 


l>Bc 


CHAPTER  III 

New  Guinea— Its  Position  and  Extent— Territorial  Divisions— Mountain 
Ranges— Numerous  Rivers— The  Papuans— The  Discovery  of  New 
Guinea— Early  Voyagers-Spanish  and  Dutch— Jan  Carstensz— 
First  Discovery  of  the  Snow  Mountains— William  Dumpier  in  the 
"  Roebuck  "—Captain  Cook  in  the  "  Endeavour  "—Naiuralisis  and 
later  Explorers. 

The  island  of  New  Guinea  or  Papua  lies  to  the  East 
of  all  the  great  islands  of  the  Malay  Archipelago  and 
forms  a  barrier  between  them  and  the  Pacific  Ocean. 
To  the  South  of  it  lies  the  Continent  of  Austraha 
separated  from  it  by  the  Arafura  Sea  and  Torres  Strait, 
which  at  its  narrowest  point  is  less  than  a  hundred 
miles  wide.  To  the  East  is  the  great  group  of  the 
Solomon  Islands,  while  on  the  North  there  are  no  im- 
portant masses  of  land  between  New  Guinea  and  Japan. 
The  island  lies  wholly  to  the  South  of  the  Equator, 
its  most  Northern  point,  the  Cape  of  Good  Hope  in 
the  Arfak  Peninsula,  being  19'  S.  latitude. 

The  extreme  length  of  the  island  from  E.  to  W.  is 
1490  miles,  and  its  greatest  breadth  from  N.  to  S.  is 
rather  more  than  400  miles.  New  Guinea  is  the  largest 
of  the  islands  of  the  globe,  having  an  area  of  308,000 
square  miles  (Borneo  has  about  290,000  square  miles), 
and  it  is  divided  amongst  three  countries  roughly  as 
follows  :  Holland  150,000,  Great  Britain  90,000,  and 
Germany  70,000  square  miles.     The  large  territory  of 


22  PYGMIES  AND   PAPUANS 

the  Dutch  was  acquired  by  them  with  the  kingdom  of 
the  Sultan  of  Ternatc,  who  was  accustomed  to  claim 
Western  New  Guinea  as  a  part  of  his  dominions  :  it  is 
bounded  on  the  East  by  the  141st  parallel  of  East 
longitude  and  partly  by  the  Fly  River  and  thus  it 
comprises  nearly  a  half  of  the  island. 

The  Eastern  half  of  the  island  is  divided  into  a 
Northern,  German,  and  a  Southern,  British,  part.  The 
German  territory  is  called  Kaiser  Wilhelm  Land,  and 
the  islands  adjacent  to  it,  which  have  received  German 
substitutes  for  their  old  names  of  New  Britain,  New 
Ireland,  etc.,  are  known  as  the  Bismarck  Archipelago. 
British  New  Guinea,  which  is  now  administered  by  the 
Federal  Government  of  Australia,  has  been  officially 
renamed  the  Territory  of  Papua,  and  with  it  are  included 
the  numerous  islands  at  its  Eastern  extremity,  the 
D'Entrecasteaux  and  Louisiade  Archipelagoes, 

Only  in  the  British  territory  has  a  serious  attempt 
been  made  at  setthng  and  administering  the  country  ; 
the  headquarters  of  the  Government  are  at  Port  Moresby, 
and  the  country  is  divided  into  six  magisterial  districts. 

The  German  possessions  are  governed  from  Herberts- 
hohe  in  Neu  Pommern  (New  Britain),  which  is  the 
centre  of  a  small  amount  of  island  trade,  but  the  settle- 
ments on  the  New  Guinea  mainland  are  few  and  far 
between,  and  it  cannot  be  pretended  that  the  country 
is  German  except  in  name. 

The  Dutch  territory  has  been  even  less  brought  under 
control  than  the  German.  For  more  than  half  a  century 
there  has  been  a  mission  station  at  Dorei  in  the  N.W. 
but   until    1899   when   the   Dutch   assumed   the    direct 


MOUNTAIN   RANGES  23 

control  of  the  country,  which  was  till  that  time  nominally 
governed  by  the  Sultan  of  Tidor  (Ternate),  there  was 
no  sign  of  Dutch  rule  in  New  Guinea.  Now  there  are 
Government  stations  with  small  bodies  of  native  soldiers 
at  Manokware,  an  island  in  Dorei  Bay,  and  at  Fak-fak 
on  the  shore  of  MacCluer  Gulf ;  more  recently  a  third 
post  has  been  established  at  Merauke  on  the  South 
coast  near  the  boundary  of  British  New  Guinea,  with 
the  object  of  subjugating  the  fierce  Tugere  tribe  of 
that  region. 

The  most  important  physical  feature  of  New  Guinea 
is  the  great  system  of  mountain  ranges,  which  run  from 
West  to  East  and  form  the  back-bone  of  the  island. 
The  Arfak  Peninsula  in  the  N.W.  is  made  entirely  by 
mountains  which  reach  an  altitude  of  more  than  gooo 
feet.  In  the  great  central  mass  of  the  island  the 
mountains  begin  near  the  S.W.  coast  with  the  Charles 
Louis  Mountains,  which  vary  in  height  from  4000  to 
9000  feet.  Following  these  to  the  East  they  are  found 
to  be  continuous  with  the  Snowy  Mountains  (now  called 
the  Nassau  Range,  the  objective  of  this  expedition) 
which  culminate  in  the  glacier-covered  tops  of  Mount 
Idenberg  (15,379  feet),  and  Mount  Carstensz  (15,964  feet), 
and  to  the  East  of  these  is  the  snow-capped  Mount 
Wilhelmina  (15,420  feet),  and  Mount  Juhana  (about 
14,764  feet). 

Leaving  Dutch  New  Guinea  and  proceeding  further 
to  the  East  we  come  to  the  Victor  Emmanuel  and  the 
Sir  Arthur  Gordon  Ranges,  which  lie  near  the  boundary 
of  German  and  British  New  Guinea.  Still  further  East 
is  the  Bismarck  Range,  often  snow  covered,  and  extending 


24  PYGMIES  AND   PAPUANS 

through  the  long  Eastern  prolongation  of  the  island 
are  the  great  range  of  the  Owen  Stanley  Mountains, 
which  reach  their  highest  point  in  Mount  Victoria 
(13,150  feet),  and  the  Stirling  Range. 

As  might  be  expected  in  so  mountainous  a  country 
there  is  a  large  number  of  rivers  and  some  of  them  arc 
of  great  size.  On  the  North  coast  the  Kaiserin  Augusta 
River  rises  in  Dutch  territory  and  takes  an  almost 
Easterly  course  through  German  New  Guinea  to  the 
sea,  while  the  Amberno  (or  Mamberamo)  rises  pro- 
bably from  the  slopes  of  the  Snowy  Mountains  and 
flows  Northwards  to  Point  d'Urville.  On  the  South 
coast,  in  British  New  Guinea  besides  the  Purari,  Kikor 
and  Turama  Rivers,  the  most  important  is  the  Fly  River, 
which  has  been  explored  by  boat  for  a  distance  of  more 
than  five  hundred  miles.  In  Southern  Dutch  New 
Guinea  there  are  almost  countless  rivers  :  chief  among 
them  are  the  Digoel,  which  has  been  explored  for  more 
than  four  hundred  miles ;  the  Island  River,  by  which 
a  Dutch  expedition  has  recently  reached  the  central 
watershed  of  New  Guinea  ;  the  Noord  River  by  which 
Mr.  H.  Lorentz  approached  Mount  Wilhelmina ;  the 
Utakwa  and  the  Utanata. 

The  natives  of  New  Guinea  are  Papuans  and  the 
island  is  indeed  the  centre  of  that  race,  which  is  found 
more  or  less  mixed  with  other  races  from  the  island  of 
Flores  as  far  as  Fiji.  Though  the  Papuans  in  New 
Guinea  itself  have  been  in  many  places  altered  by 
immigrant  races,  for  instance  by  Malays  in  the  extreme 
West,  and  by  Polynesian  and  Melanesian  influences  in 
the   South   and  East,   there  yet  remain  large  regions, 


THE  NATIVES   OF   NEW   GUINEA  25 

particularly  in  the  Western  half  of  the  country,  including 
the  district  visited  by  this  expedition,  where  the  true 
Papuan  stock  holds  its  own. 

The  name  Papua,  it  should  be  said,  comes  from 
the  Malay  wood  papuwah,  meaning  "  woolly  "  or  "  fuzzy," 
and  was  first  applied  to  the  natives  on  account  of  their 
mops  of  hair  ;  later  the  name  was  applied  to  the  island 
itself. 

Even  among  those  Papuans  who  are  pure-blooded — 
in  so  far  as  one  may  use  that  expression  in  describing 
any  human  race — there  are  very  considerable  varieties 
of  appearance,  but  it  is  still  possible  to  describe  a  type 
to  which  all  of  them  conform  in  the  more  important 
particulars.  The  typical  Papuan  is  rather  tall  and  is_^ 
usually  well-built.  The  legs  of  the  low  country  people 
,are  somewhat  meagre,  as  is  usually  the  case  among 
people  who  spend  much  of  their  time  in  canoes,  whilst 
those  of  the  hill  tribes  are  well  developed.  The  hands 
and  feet  are  large.  The  colour  of  the  skin  varies  from 
a  dark  chocolate  colour  to  a  rusty  black,  but  it  seems  to 
be  never  of  the  shining  ebony  blackness  of  the  African 
negro.  The  lips  are  thick  but  not  full,  the  teeth  are 
strong  but  not  noticeably  good,  and  the  jaws  are  strong 
but  they  can  hardly  be  called  prognathous.  The 
forehead  is  receding,  the  brows  are  strong  and  pro- 
minent, and  the  shape  of  the  face  is  somewhat  oval. 
The  hair  is  black  and  "  frizzly  "  rather  than  "  woolly," 
it  is  crisp  and  hard  to  the  touch,  and  in  some  tribes  it 
is  grown  to  a  considerable  length  and  dressed  in  a 
variety  of  ornamental  fashions.  Short  hard  hair  is 
also  found  frequently  on  the  chest  and  on  the  limbs. 


26  PYGMIES  AND  PAPUANS 

but  on  the  face  it  is  scanty  and  frequently  altogether 
absent. 

The  most  characteristic  feature  is  the  nose,  which 
is  long  and  fleshy  and  somewhat  *'  Semitic  "  in  outline, 
but  flattened  and  depressed  at  the  tip.  But  these 
characteristics  of  the  nose  would  not  alone  suffice  to 
distinguish  the  Papuans  from  others  were  it  not  for  the 
fact  that  the  alae  nasi  are  attached  at  a  remarkably 
high  level  on  the  face,  and  so  an  unusually  large  extent 
of  the  septum  of  the  nose  is  exposed.  It  is  owing  to 
this  curious  formation  of  the  nose  that  the  Papuan  is 
enabled  to  perform  his  almost  universal  practice  of 
piercing  the  septum  nasi  and  wearing  there  some  ornament 
of  bone  or  shell. 

Apart  from  physical  characteristics  many  observers 
have  found  mental  qualities  in  which  the  Papuans 
differ  from,  and  are  superior  to,  neighbouring  races  ; 
but  these  things  are  so  difficult  to  define,  and  they  vary 
so  much  according  to  local  circumstances,  that  it  is 
not  wise  to  use  them  as  conclusive  evidence.  It  ma}^, 
however,  be  said  without  fear  of  contradiction  that 
no  person,  who  has  had  experience  of  Malays  and  of 
Papuans,  could  believe  for  a  moment  that  they  are 
anything  but  two  very  distinct  races  of  men.  The 
origin  of  the  Papuans  is  not  definitely  known,  and  the 
existence  in  different  parts  of  the  island  of  small  people, 
who  are  possibly  of  Negrito  stock,  suggests  that  the 
Papuans  were  not  the  original  inhabitants  of  New 
Guinea. 

The  history  of  the  earliest  discovery  of  New  Guinea 


EARLY   SPANISH  NAVIGATORS  27 

is  not  precisely  known,  but  it  is  safe  to  disregard  the 
legends  of  navigators  having  found  the  island  before 
the  Portuguese  reached  the  Moluccas  and  founded  a 
trading  centre  at  Ternate  in  15 12.  The  earliest  authentic 
record  is  of  the  Portuguese  Don  Jorge  de  Mcneses,  who 
was  driven  out  of  his  way  on  a  voyage  from  Goa  to 
Ternate  in  1526,  and  took  refuge  in  the  island  of  Waigiu. 
Two  years  later  a  Spaniard  Alvaro  de  Saavedra  taking 
spices  from  the  Moluccas  to  Mexico  appears  to  have 
reached  the  Schouten  Islands  in  Geelvink  Bay.  From 
there  he  sailed  North  and  discovered  the  Carolines  and 
the  Mariana  Islands,  but  unfavourable  winds  drove 
him  back  to  the  Moluccas.  In  1529  he  set  out  again, 
and  sailed  along  a  long  expanse  of  coast,  which  was 
doubtless  the  North  coast  of  New  Guinea. 

In  1546  Ynigo  Ortiz  de  Retes  sailed  from  Ternate 
to  Mexico  in  his  ship  San  Juan.  He  touched  at  several 
places  on  the  North  coast  where  he  hoisted  the  Spanish 
flag,  and  called  the  island  Nueva  Guinea,  because  the 
natives  appeared  to  him  to  resemble  the  negroes  of 
the  Guinea  coast  of  Africa.  The  name,  spelt  Nova 
Guinea,  appears  printed  for  the  first  time  on  Mercator's 
map  of  1569. 

The  last  important  Spanish  Expedition  was  that  of 
Luis  Vaz  de  Torres,  who  sailed  with  two  ships  from 
Peru,  and  in  1606  reached  the  south-east  corner  of 
New  Guinea.  He  sailed  along  the  South  coast  from 
one  to  the  other  end  of  the  island,  of  which  he  took 
possession  in  the  name  of  the  King  of  Spain.  Torres' 
voyage  through  the  strait  which  now  bears  his  name 
was  the  first  to  show  that  New  Guinea  was  an  island, 


28  PYGMIES  AND   PAPUANS 

but  the  account  of  the  voj^age  was  not  published  and  the 
fact  of  his  discovery  remained  unknown  until  after 
1800. 

The  seventeenth  century  was  chiefly  notable  for  the 
explorations  of  the  Dutch,  whose  East  India  Company 
proclaimed  a  monopoly  of  trade  in  the  Spice  Islands 
to  the  exclusion  of  people  of  other  nationalities.  In 
1605,  Willem  Jansz  sailed  from  Banda  to  New  Guinea 
in  the  Duyfken.  The  Ke  and  Aru  Islands  were  visited 
and  the  Cape  York  Peninsula  of  Australia  was  reached, 
but  the  importance  of  that  discovery  was  not  realised. 
On  the  mainland  of  New  Guinea  nine  men  of  the  ship's 
company  were  killed  and  eaten,  and  the  expedition 
returned  to  Banda. 

Jacques  Le  Maire  and  Willem  Schouten  made  an 
important  voyage  in  1616  in  the  Eendracht.  Sailing 
from  Europe  by  way  of  Cape  Horn  they  crossed  the 
Pacific  and  discovered  New  Ireland,  where  they  had 
trouble  with  the  natives,  who  (it  is  interesting  to  note) 
gave  them  pigs  in  exchange  for  glass  beads.  The 
Admiralty  and  Vulcan  Islands  were  seen  and  then, 
after  reaching  the  coast  of  New  Guinea,  they  discovered 
the  mouth  of  the  Kaiserin  Augusta  River  and  the 
Schouten  Islands. 

The  next  important  voyage,  and  in  this  chronicle 
the  most  important  of  all,  was  that  of  Jan  Carstcnsz 
(or  Carstenszoon)  who  sailed  from  Amboina  in  1623 
with  the  ships  Per  a  and  Arnhem.  After  visiting  Ke 
and  Aru  they  reached  the  S.W.  coast  of  New  Guinea, 
where  they  met  with  trouble.  "This  same  day 
"  (February  11)  the  skipper  of  the  yacht  Arnhem,  Dirck 


THE   VOYAGE   OF  JAN   CARSTENSZ        29 

*'  Meliszoon,  without  knowledge  of  myself  or  the  sub- 
"  cargo  or  steersman  of  the  said  3'acht,  unadvisedly^ 
"  went  ashore  to  the  open  beach  in  the  pinnace,  taking 
"  with  him  fifteen  persons,  both  officers  and  common 
''  sailors,  and  no  more  than  four  muskets,  for  the  purpose 
"  of  fishing  with  a  seine-net.  There  was  great  disorder 
"  in  landing,  the  men  running  off  in  different  directions, 
"  until  at  last  a  number  of  black  savages  came  running 
"  forth  from  the  wood,  who  first  seized  and  tore  to 
"  pieces  an  assistant  named  Jan  Willemsz  Van  den 
"  Briel  who  happened  to  be  unarmed,  after  which  they 
"  slew  with  arrows,  callaways,  and  with  the  oars  which 
''  they  had  snatched  from  the  pinnace,  no  less  than 
"  nine  of  our  men,  who  were  unable  to  defend  them- 
"  selves,  at  the  same  time  wounding  the  remaining 
"  seven  (among  them  the  skipper,  who  was  the  first  to 
"  take  to  his  heels)  ;  these  last  seven  men  at  last  returned 
"  on  board  in  very  sorry  plight  with  the  pinnace  and 
**  one  oar,  the  skipper  loudly  lamenting  his  great  want 
"  of  prudence,  and  entreating  pardon  for  the  fault  he 
"  had  committed." 

The  incautious  skipper  died  of  his  wounds  on  the 
following  day  and  so  he  did  not  take  a  part  in  the  most 
momentous  discovery  of  the  voyage.  "  In  the  morning 
"  of  the  i6th  (February)  we  took  the  sun's  altitude 
"  at  sunrise,  which  we  found  to  be  5°  6'  ;  the  preceding 
"  evening  ditto  20°  30'  ;  the  difference  being  divided 
"  by  two  comes  to  7°  42'  ;  increasing  North-easterly 
"  variation  ;  the  wind  N.  by  E.  ;  we  were  at  about 
"  one  and  a  half  mile's  distance  from  the  low-lying 
"  land  in  5  or  6  fathom,  clayey  bottom  ;    at  a  distance 


30  PYGMIES  AND   PAPUANS 

"  of  about  10  miles  by  estimation  into  the  interior  we 
**  saw  a  very  high  mountain  range  in  many  places  white 
"  with  snow,  which  we  thought  a  very  singular  sight, 
"  being  so  near  the  line  equinoctial.  Towards  the 
"  evening  we  held  our  course  E.  by  S.,  along  half-sub- 
"  merged  land  in  5,  4,  3,  and  2  fathom,  at  which  last 
"  point  we  dropped  anchor  ;  we  lay  there  for  about 
"  five  hours,  during  which  time  we  found  the  water  to 
"  have  risen  4  or  5  feet ;  in  the  first  watch,  the  wind 
"  being  N.E.,  we  ran  into  deeper  water  and  came  to 
"  anchor  in  10  fathom,  where  we  remained  for  the 
"  night." 

That  is  the  brief  account  of  the  first  discovery  of  the 
Snow  Mountains  of  New  Guinea  by  Jan  Carstensz,  whose 
name  is  now  perpetuated  in  the  highest  summit  of  the 
range.  Very  few  ships  have  sailed  along  that  coast  in 
three  hundred  years,  and  there  are  very  many  days  in 
the  year  when  not  a  sign  of  the  mountains  can  be  seen 
from  the  shore,  so  it  is  not  very  astonishing  to  find 
ships'  captains  sailing  on  those  seas  w^ho  still  disbelieve 
the  story  of  the  snow.  On  the  same  voyage  Carstensz 
crossed  the  straits  and  sailed  a  considerable  way  down 
the  Cape  York  Peninsula  believing  that  the  land  was 
still  New  Guinea. 

In  1636  Thomas  Pool  explored  a  large  tract  of  the 
S.W.  coast ;  Pool  himself  was  killed  by  natives,  but 
the  expedition  discovered  three  large  rivers,  the  Kupera 
Pukwa,  Inabuka  (?  Neweripa),  and  the  Utakwa.  Tasman 
sailed  along  the  North  coast  of  New  Guinea  in  1642 
after  his  discovery  of  Van  Diemen's  Land  (Tasmania)  ; 
and  in  1644  he  was  sent  to  find  out  whether  there  was 


DAM  PIER  AND   COOK  31 

a  passage  between  New  Guinea  and  the  large  "  South 
Land "  (Austraha).  Apparently  he  cruised  along  the 
coast  about  as  far  as  Merauke,  and  also  touched  Australia, 
but  the  strait  was  not  discovered. 

Throughout  the  seventeenth  century  the  Dutch  East 
India  Company  maintained  their  monopoly  of  the  cloves 
and  nutmegs  of  the  Moluccas,  and  great  consternation 
was  caused  when  the  English  tried  to  obtain  these  spices 
direct  by  sending  ships  to  the  Papuan  islands.  The 
Moluccas  were  protected  by  forts  and  their  harbours 
safe,  therefore  in  order  to  prevent  the  English  from 
obtaining  the  spices  outside  the  sphere  of  direct  Dutch 
influence,  all  trees  producing  spices  were  destroyed. 

The  most  important  of  the  English  vo3^ages  was 
that  of  Capt.  William  Dampier  in  the  Roebuck.  He 
sailed  by  Brazil  and  the  Cape  of  Good  Hope  to  Western 
Australia  and  thence  to  Timor.  On  January  i,  1700, 
he  sighted  the  mountains  of  New  Guinea  ;  he  landed 
on  several  islands  near  the  coast,  captured  Crowned 
pigeons  and  many  kinds  of  fishes,  which  he  described 
in  his  book.  Rounding  the  N.W.  corner  of  the  island 
he  sailed  along  the  North  coast  and  discovered  that 
New  Britain  was  separated  from  New  Guinea  by  a 
strait  to  which  he  gave  his  own  name. 

After  the  voyages  of  Philip  Carteret,  who  proved 
that  New  Ireland  is  an  island,  and  of  de  Bougainville 
in  1766  the  most  important  is  that  of  Captain  James 
Cook  in  the  Endeavour.  He  sailed  from  Plymouth  in 
August  1768,  rounded  Cape  Horn,  reached  and  charted 
New  Zealand,  reached  the  East  coast  of  New  Holland 
(Austraha)  in  April  1770,  and  sailed  along  the  coast  to 


32  PYGMIES  AND   PAPUANS 

Cape  York,  which  he  named.  Looking  Westward  he 
decided  that  there  was  a  channel  leading  from  the 
Pacific  to  the  Indian  Ocean,  and  after  sailing  through 
it  he  came  to  the  coast  of  New  Guinea  to  the  N.W.  of 
^  Prince  Frederick  Henry  Island,  where  he  was  attacked 
by  natives  and  thence  he  sailed  to  Batavia.  Thus 
Captain  Cook  by  sailing  through  his  Endeavour  Strait, 
now  called  Torres  Strait  after  the  original  navigator, 
repeated  the  discovery  of  Torres  after  an  interval  of 
more  than  a  century  and  a  half,  and  the  general  position 
and  outline  of  New  Guinea  became  known  to  the 
world. 

After  the  voyage  of  Cook  many  important  additions 
were  made  to  the  charts  of  New  Guinea  and  its  neigh- 
bouring islands,  notably  by  the  voyages  of  La  Perouse 
(1788),  John  MacCluer  (1790-1793),  D'Entrecasteaux 
(1792-1793),  Duperrey  (1823-1824),  D.  H.  Kolff  (1826), 
and  Dumont  d'Urville  (1827-1828). 

But  during  all  this  time  New  Guinea  was  practically 
no  man's  land,  and  except  at  Dorei  and  about  the 
MacCluer  Gulf  explorations  were  limited  to  views  from 
the  deck  of  a  ship.  Flags  were  hoisted  now  and  then 
and  the  land  taken  possession  of  in  the  name  of  various 
sovereigns  and  companies,  amongst  others  by  the  East 
India  Company  in  1793,  but  no  effective  occupation 
was  ever  made.  The  Dutch  regained  their  title  to  the 
Western  half  of  the  island,  but  it  was  not  until  1884 
that  a  British  Protectorate  was  proclaimed  over  the 
S.E.  portion  of  the  island,  and  over  the  remainder  by 
Germany  in  the  same  year. 

Although  numerous  naturalists,  notably  Dr.  A.  R. 


RECENT  EXPLORATION  33 

Wallace,  Von  Rosenberg,  and  Bernstein,  and  missionaries 
had  spent  considerable  periods  of  time  in  the  conntr}-, 
no  very  serious  attempt  was  made  to  penetrate  into  the 
interior  until  1876,  when  the  Italian  naturalist,  d'Albertis, 
explored  the  Fly  River  for  more  than  five  hundred  miles. 
Since  that  time  a  very  large  number  of  expeditions 
have  been  undertaken  to  various  parts  of  the  island, 
and  it  will  only  be  possible  to  mention  a  few  of  them 
here.  In  1885  Captain  Everill  ascended  the  Strickland 
tributary  of  the  Fly  River.  In  the  same  year  Dr.  H.  O. 
Forbes  explored  the  Owen  Stanley  range,  and  in  1889 
Sir  William  Macgregor  reached  the  highest  point  of  that 
range. 

In  Dutch  New  Guinea  very  little  exploration  was 
done  until  the  beginning  of  the  present  century.  Pro- 
fessor Wichmann  made  scientific  investigations  in  the 
neighbourhood  of  Humboldt  Bay  in  1903.  Captains 
Posthumus  Meyes  and  De  Rochemont  in  1904  discovered  ^ 
East  Bay  and  the  Noord  River,  which  was  explored 
by  Mr.  H.  A.  Lorentz  in  1907. 

During  the  period  from  1909  to  191 1,  whilst  our  party 
was  in  New  Guinea,  there  were  six  other  expeditions 
in  different  parts  of  the  Dutch  territory.  On  the  N. 
coast  a  Dutch-German  boundary  commission  was  pene- 
trating inland  from  Humboldt  Bay,  and  a  large  party 
under  Capt.  Fransse  Herderschee  was  exploring  the 
Amberno  River.  On  the  West  and  South  coasts  an 
expedition  was  exploring  inland  from  Fak-fak,  another 
was  surveying  the  Digoel  and  Island  rivers,  and  a  third 
made  an  attempt  to  reach  the  Snow  Mountains  by 
way  of  the  Utakwa  River.     But  the  most  successful  of 

D 


y^ 


^ 


34  PYGMIES  AND   PAPUANS 

all  the  expeditions  was  that  of  Mr.  Lorentz,  who  sailed 
up  the  Noord  River  and  in  November  1909  reached 
the  snow  on  Mount  Wilhelmina,  two  hundred  and  eighty- 
six  years  after  the  mountains  were  first  seen  by  Jan 
Carstensz. 


CHAPTER  IV 

Sail  from  the  Am  Islands— Sight  New  Guinea— Distant  Mountains^ 
Signal  Fires — Natives  in  Canoes — A  British  Flag — Natives  on 
Board — Their  Behaviour — Arrival  at  Mimika  River — Reception  at 
Wakatimi — Dancing  and  Weeping — Landing  Stores — View  of  the 
Country — Snoiv  Mountains — Shark-Fishing — Making  the  Camp- 
Death  of  W.  Stalker. 

When  wc  left  the  northernmost  end  of  the  Aru  Islands 
behind  us  the  wind  rose  and  torrents  of  rain  descended, 
and  the  Arafura  Sea,  which  is  almost  everj^where  more 
or  less  shoal  water,  treated  us  to  the  first  foul  weather 
we  had  experienced  since  leaving  England.     At  dawn 
on  the  4th  January  we  found  ourselves  in  sight  of  land, 
and  about  five  miles  south  of   the  New  Guinea  coast. 
A  big  bluff  mountain  (Mount  Lakahia)  a  southern  spur 
of  the  Charles  Louis  range  determined  our  position,  and 
the  head  of  the  Nias  was  immediately  turned   to  the 
East.      As  we  steamed  along  the  coast  the  light  grew 
stronger,  and  we  saw  in  the  far  North-east  pale  clouds, 
which  presently  resolved  themselves  into  ghostly-looking 
mountains  one  hundred  miles  away.     Soon  the  rising 
sunlight  touched  them  and  we  could  clearly  see  white 
patches  above  the  darker  masses  of  rock  and  then  we 
knew   that   these   were   the   Snow   Mountains   of   New 
Guinea,  which  we  had  come  so  far  to  see.     Beyond  an 
impression  of  their  remoteness  and  their  extraordinary 
steepness  we  did  not  learn  much  of  the  formation  of 
the  mountains  from  that  great  distance  and  they  were 


36  PYGMIES  AND   PAPUANS 

quickly  hidden  from  our  view,  as  we  afterwards  found 
happened  daily,  by  the  dense  white  mists  that  rose  from 
the  intervening  land. 

Following  the  coast  rather  more  closely  we  soon 
found  that  our  approach  was  causing  some  excitement 
on  shore.  White  columns  of  the  smoke  of  signal  fires 
curled  up  from  the  low  points  of  the  land  and  canoes 
manned  by  black  figures  paddled  furiously  in  our  wake, 
while  others,  warned  doubtless  by  the  signals,  put  off 
from  the  land  ahead  of  us  and  endeavoured  to  intercept 
us  in  our  course. 

In  some  of  the  larger  canoes  there  were  as  many 
as  twenty  men,  and  very  fine  indeed  they  looked  standing 
up  in  the  long  narrow  craft  which  they  urged  swiftly 
forward  with  powerful  rhythmic  strokes  of  their  long- 
shafted  paddles.  At  the  beginning  of  each  stroke  the 
blade  of  the  paddle  is  at  right  angles  to  the  boat.  As 
it  is  pulled  backward  the  propelling  surface  of  the 
paddle  is  a  little  rotated  outward,  a  useful  precaution, 
for  the  stroke  ends  with  a  sudden  jerk  as  the  paddle 
is  lifted  from  the  water  and  the  consequent  shower  of 
spray  is  directed  away  from  the  canoe. 

The  shore  was  low  and  featureless,  and  it  was 
impossible  to  identify  the  mouths  of  the  rivers  from 
the  very  inaccurate  chart.  It  was  not  safe  for  the 
Nias  to  approach  the  land  closely  on  account  of  the 
shoal  water,  so  Capt.  Van  Herwerden  dropped  anchor 
when  he  had  been  steaming  Eastwards  for  about  eight 
hours,  and  sent  the  steam  launch  towards  an  inlet, 
where  we  could  see  huts,  to  gather  information.  A 
bar  of  sand  prevented  the  launch  from  entering  the 


ARRIVAL   IN    NEW   GUINEA  37 

inlet,  so  they  hailed  a  canoe  which  ventured  within 
speaking  distance,  and  by  repeating  several  times 
"  Mimika,"  the  only  word  of  their  language  that  we 
knew  at  that  time,  learnt  that  we  had  overshot  our 
destination  by  a  few  miles.  That  canoe,  it  should  be 
noted,  was  remarkable  on  account  of  two  of  its  crew. 
One  of  them  held  aloft  an  ancient  Union  Jack;  the 
other  was  conspicuously  different  from  the  scores  of 
men  in  the  canoes  about  us,  who  were  all  frankly  in  a 
bare  undress,  by  wearing  an  old  white  cotton  jacket 
fastened  by  a  brass  button  which  was  ornamented  with 
the  head  of  Queen  Victoria.  How  the  flag  and  the 
coat  and  the  button  came  to  that  outlandish  place  will 
never  be  known,  but  it  is  certain  that  they  must  have 
passed  through  very  many  hands  before  they  came  there, 
for  certainly  no  Englishman  had  ever  been  there  before. 

When  the  launch  returned  to  the  ship  a  crowd  of 
natives,  fifty  or  sixty  at  the  least,  came  clambering  on 
board  leaving  only  one  or  two  men  in  each  canoe  to  paddle 
after  the  steamer  as  we  slowly  returned  towards  the 
Mimika.  Two  men  were  recognised  by  Capt.  Van 
Herwerden  as  having  belonged  to  a  party  of  natives 
from  this  coast,  who  had  been  taken  some  years  earlier 
to  Merauke,  the  Dutch  settlement  near  the  southern- 
most point  of  New  Guinea.  At  Merauke  they  had 
got  into  mischief  and  had  been  put  in  prison  from  which 
nine  of  them  escaped,  and  these  two  men,  probably 
the  only  survivors  of  the  party,  had  contrived  to  find 
their  way  along  four  hundred  miles  of  coast,  peopled 
by  hostile  tribes,  back  to  their  own  country. 

The  behaviour  of  our  new  fellow  passengers  was  very 


38  PYGMIES  AND   PAPUANS 

remarkable    and    different    from    what    one    expected, 
though  it  was  obvious  enough  at  the  first  glance  that 
these  were  people  totaUy  different  from  the  Malayan 
races  both  in  appearance  and  demeanour  ;    yet  there 
was  none  of  that  exuberance  of  spirits,  child-like  curiosity 
and  exhibition  of  merriment  and  delight  in  their  novel 
surroundings  described  by  Wallace  *  and  Guillemard  f 
and  which  I  had  myself  seen  on  the  coast  of  German 
New  Guinea.     A  few  of  them  shook  hands,   or  rather 
held  hands,   with   us   and   talked  loudly   and   volubly, 
while  the  rest  stared  dumbly  at  us  and  then  wandered 
aimlessly  about  the  ship  seeking  a  chance  to  steal  any 
loose   piece   of   metal.     They   showed   no   fear  nor   did 
they  betray  any  excitement  nor  any  very  keen  curiosity 
about    the    marvellous    things    that    they    were    seeing 
for  the  first  time.     They  weie  quite  unmoved  by  the 
spectacle  of  the  windlass  lifting  up  the  anchor,  and  a 
casual   glance   down   the   skylight   of  the   engine   room 
was  enough  for  most  of  them.     They  appeared  to  take 
everything  for  granted  without  question,  and  a  stolid 
stare  was  their  only  recognition  of  the  wonderful  works 
of  the  white  man's  civilisation.     In   one  respect  it  is 
true  they  were  not  quite  so  apathetic  and  that  was  in 
their    appetite    for    tobacco,    which   they   begged   from 
everyone  on  board,  brown  and  white  alike.     When  they 
had  obtained   a    supply,  they  sat  in  groups  about  the 
deck  and  smoked  as  unconcernedly  as  though  a  passage 
in  a  steamship  were  an  affair  of  every-day  occurrence 
in  their  lives. 


/ 


*  Malay  Archipelago,  Chapter  XXIX. 

t  F.  H.  H.  Guillemard,  The  Cruise  of  the  "  Marchesa,"  Chapter  XXI. 


MOUTH   OF  THE   MIMIKA  39 

By  the  time  that  we  eventually  anchored  off  the 
mouth  of  the  Mimika  River  it  was  beginning  to  grow 
dark,  and  Capt.  Van  Herwerden  ordered  the  natives 
on  board  to  leave  the  ship,  not  having  noticed  that  the 
canoes  had  already  departed  towards  the  shore.  No 
doubt  this  was  a  preconcerted  scheme  of  the  natives 
who  wanted  to  stay  on  board,  but  by  dint  of  much 
shouting  two  canoes  were  persuaded  to  return  and  take 
away  some  of  our  passengers.  It  was  then  quite  dark 
and  there  was  a  white  mist  over  the  sea,  and  the  spectacle 
of  the  procession  of  black  figures  passing  down  the 
gangway  into  an  apparent  abyss,  for  the  canoes  were 
invisible  in  the  gloom,  was  singularly  weird.  There 
was  not  room  for  all  in  the  canoes,  so  about  a  score  of 
fortunate  ones  had  to  stop  on  board,  where  they  slept 
in  picturesque  attitudes  about  the  deck.  Five  young 
men  chose  a  place  where  the  iron  cover  of  the  steering 
chain  made  a  pillow  a  few  inches  high  ;  they  lay  on 
their  sides  all  facing  the  same  way,  their  arms  folded 
across  their  chests  and  their  bent  knees  fitting  into  the 
bend  of  the  knees  of  the  man  in  front,  and  so  close 
together  that  the  five  of  them  occupied  a  space  hardly 
more  than  five  feet  square. 

Soon  after  daylight  on  the  following  day  the  steam 
launch  left  the  ship  with  a  party  to  proceed  up  the 
Mimika  and  find  a  suitable  place  for  a  base-camp.  The 
river  has  a  fine  wide  mouth  about  a  mile  across  guarded 
by  a  sand  bar,  through  which  runs  a  narrow  channel 
navigable  at  all  stages  of  the  tide  except  during  rough 
weather.  For  some  distance  the  river  is  a  noble  stream 
two  or  three  hundred  yards  wide  winding  in  fine  sweeps 


40  PYGMIES  AND   PAPUANS 

between  low  mangrove-covered  banks.  About  three 
miles  from  the  sea  the  river  divides  into  an  East  and 
West  branch.  The  East  branch,  the  Mimika  proper, 
brings  down  not  more  than  one-quarter  of  the  volume 
of  water  of  the  West  branch,  of  which  it  may  be  said 
to  be  a  tributary.  It  is  remarkable  that  the  party  who 
visited  the  Mimika  in  1902  apparently  overlooked  the 
fact  that  the  West  branch  is  actually  the  main  river. 
Above  the  junction  of  the  two  branches  the  water  of 
the  Mimika  is  of  a  brown  chocolate  colour  which 
proclaims  it,  though  we  did  not  know  it  at  the  time, 
to  be  a  mere  jungle  stream  rising  from  comparatively 
low  ground.  The  water  of  the  West  branch  on  the 
contrary  is  pale  in  colour  and  at  times  of  flood  almost 
milky-white,  being  charged  with  lime-stone  from  the 
high  mountains  where  it  rises. 

Proceeding  for  two  or  three  miles  up  the  Mimika, 
which  had  become  above  the  junction  a  compara- 
tively insignificant  stream  forty  or  fifty  yards  across 
and  very  tortuous,  the  exploring  party  in  the  steam 
launch  arrived  at  the  village  of  Wakatimi  situated 
on  the  right  bank  of  the  river.  The  village  was  crowded 
with  natives,  numbering  perhaps  one  thousand  people, 
who  gave  the  visitors  a  most  remarkable  reception. 
As  soon  as  the  boat  appeared  in  sight  the  natives 
crowded  down  to  the  bank  and  shouted  shrilly,  men, 
women  and  children.  When  they  came  nearer  the 
people  threw  themselves  into  the  shallow  water  and 
many  of  them  plastered  themselves  with  mud,  while 
the  women  performed  their  curious  dance,  if  dance  it 
can    be    cahcd.      It    is    not    a    concerted    performance. 


A  WELCOME   OF   TEARS  41 

but  rather  a  pas  sail  executed  by  each  woman  inde- 
pendently of  the  others,  and  it  is  a  pecuharly  ungrace- 
ful exhibition.  The  body  is  bent  forward  from  the 
hips,  the  hands  rest  on  the  knees  or  on  the  hips,  and 
then  with  a  shuffling  movement  of  the  feet  the  woman 
swings  herself  from  side  to  side  or  up  and  down,  always 
presenting  her  back  and  the  narrow  strip  of  barkcloth, 
which  usually  hangs  down  like  a  tail  behind,  to  the 
astonished  gaze  of  the  spectator.  She  sings  all  the 
while  a  monotonous  whining  chant  and  occasionally 
looks  back  over  her  shoulder,  as  if  to  see  that  the 
onlooker  is  properly  appreciative  of  her  charms.  Many 
of  the  people  both  men  and  women  on  this  and  other 
occasions  of  great  excitement  were  so  overcome  with 
emotion  that  they  actually  shed  tears  of  rapture.* 
For  many  days  after  this  boats  were  constantly  coming 
up  the  river  from  the  ship,  and  they  were  always 
welcomed  in  a  similar  manner  by  the  natives. 

The  river  was  explored  for  a  few  miles  further  up, 
but  the  only  suitable  place  for  a  camp  was  found  to 
be  on  the  left  bank  of  the  river  immediately  opposite 
to  Wakatimi.  Lieut.  Cramer  and  a  party  of  his 
soldiers  established  themselves  there  the  same  after- 
noon and  the  work  of  clearing  the  ground  and  landing 
the  stores  was  immediately  begun.  The  Nias  was 
anchored   about   two   miles   outside   the   river   and   the 

*  A  note  in  the  Geographical  Journal,  Vol.  xxxviii.  p.  211,  points 
out  the  interesting  fact  that  this  custom  of  shedding  tears  in  wekome 
was  observed  by  some  of  the  early  travellers  in  many  places  on  the 
American  Continent,  both  North  and  South.  It  has  also  been  noticed 
among  the  Andamanese  and  other  Negroid  inhabitants  of  South- 
Eastern  Asia  and  Australasia. 


42  PYGMIES  AND   PAPUANS 

launch  went  very  slowly  when  it  had  two  or  three 
heavily  laden  boats  to  tow  against  the  strong  current 
of  the  river,  so  the  business  of  landing  the  expedition 
was  a  very  slow  one,  and  as  there  was  at  first  but  very 
little  space  for  pitching  tents  on  the  camping  ground 
some  of  us  remained  for  a  few  days  on  board.  During 
those  days  that  were  spent  on  the  ship  outside  the 
Mimika  we  had  opportunities  in  the  early  morning 
of  getting  a  general  idea  of  the  broad  features  of  the 
country. 

At  the  top  of  the  white  sandy  beach  was  in  most 
places  a  narrow  belt  of  Casitarina  trees,  which  are 
accustomed  to  grow  on  sandy  or  stony  soil.  They 
resemble  pines  and  their  pale  stems  have  a  fresh  green 
foliage,  which  is  a  pleasing  contrast  to  the  dense 
monotonous  green  of  the  majority  of  the  trees  in  the 
country.  Behind  the  Casuarina  belt  dense  jungle,  for 
the  first  few  miles  consisting  entirely  of  Mangroves  and 
beyond  that  of  various  trees,  extends  with  hardly  any 
rise  of  altitude  to  the  foot  of  the  mountains  thirty 
miles  away.  This  last  observation  was  one  of  supreme 
importance  and  it  affected  the  whole  prospect  and 
conduct  of  the  expedition.  Those  of  us  who  had  been 
to  New  Guinea  before  had  been  accustomed  to  seeing 
a  steep  shore  rising  very  quickly  to  the  hills.  This 
is  the  usual  formation  along  practically  the  whole  of 
the  North  coast  of  the  island,  also  along  a  considerable 
extent  of  the  South-east  coast  and  again  on  the  West 
coast  in  the  neighbourhood  of  MacClucr  Gulf.  It 
was  known  of  course  that  the  South  coast  on  both 
sides  of  the  mouth  of  the  Fly  River  and  about  Prince 


VIEW  OF  THE   MOUNTAINS  43 

Frederick  Henry  Island  was  low  swampy  country, 
but  it  was  assumed  that,  considering  the  fact  that  the 
highest  peaks  of  the  Snow  Mountains  were  known  to 
be  not  more  than  seventy  miles  from  the  sea,  the  foot- 
hills would  certainly  extend  to  within  a  short  distance 
of  the  coast. 

Before  we  had  reached  the  country  we  had  had 
the  idea  that  in  a  few  days'  march  we  should  find  our- 
selves in  the  hills  at  perhaps  three  or  four  thousand 
feet  above  the  sea,  but  the  view  of  the  country  which 
we  saw  from  the  Nias  effectually  put  an  end  to  any  hopes 
of  that  kind.  It  is  probable  that  more  searching 
enquiries  made  at  Batavia  would  have  revealed  the 
existence  of  this  wide  belt  of  low  land,  but  it  seldom 
occurs  to  you  to  question  the  truth  of  such  an  assump- 
tion. However  that  may  be,  a  serious  mistake  was 
made  and  we  paid  for  it  dearly  enough.  The  mountains 
appeared  to  rise  very  steeply  from  the  low  ground, 
and  seen  from  a  distance  they  appeared  to  be  composed 
of  parallel  ridges  lying  one  behind  the  other,  each  one 
successively  higher  than  the  one  in  front  of  it.  It 
was  only  in  certain  lights,  and  more  particularly  when 
the  clouds  began  to  form  on  them,  that  you  could 
distinguish  deep  and  narrow  valleys  running  into  the 
mountains.  The  nearer  ranges  rose  steeply  enough, 
but  were  not  too  steep  to  be  covered  with  dense  forest 
easily  discernible  from  a  distance.  The  furthermost 
ridge  on  the  other  hand  rose  in  huge  precipices  of  bare 
rock,  which  showed  reddish  yellow  in  the  morning 
sunhght  with  here  and  there  downward  stripes  of 
black   colour,   presumably  water,   and   in   other  places 


44  PYGMIES  AND   PAPUANS 

streaks  of  pure  white  rock.  This  precipice,  of  which 
more  will  be  said  later,  grew  smaller  towards  the  West 
until  it  ended  at  the  deep  vaUey,  which  divides  the 
Snow  Mountains  from  the  range  of  the  Charles  Louis 
Mountains. 

In  the  opposite  direction  towards  the  East  the  range 
rises  gradually,  until  at  a  point  about  North-east  from 
the  Mimika  three  snow-capped  tops  are  seen.  I  use 
the  word  "  top"  advisedly,  for  these  three  points  are  not 
peaks  but  are  elevations  on  an  otherwise  fairly  even 
mountain  outline.  The  vertical  extent  of  the  snow 
is  not  very  great,  a  few  hundred  feet  at  the  most,  the 
South  face  of  the  mountain  being  so  steep  that  snow 
cannot  lie  on  it  save  on  the  horizontal  terraces  of  the 
strata,  which  could  plainly  be  distinguished.  Con- 
tinuing the  ridge  East  from  the  three  snow  tops  (Mount 
Idenburg)  is  a  long  plain  of  almost  level  snow  about 
three  miles  long.  From  the  East  end  of  the  snow 
plain  a  ridge  of  shattered  rock,  looking  like  Dolomite 
towers  from  that  great  distance,  forms  a  connection 
with  Mount  Carstensz,  the  highest  point  of  the  range. 

Seen  from  afar,  Mount  Carstensz  appears  to  be  of 
a  different  formation  from  the  rest  of  the  range.  Mr. 
Dumas  of  the  Dutch  Expedition  to  the  Utakwa  River 
clearly  identified  masses  of  slate  on  the  Southern  face 
from  a  distance  of  twenty  miles,  and  this  would  quite 
account  for  its  different  appearance.  There  are  two 
principal  tops,  a  Western  black  and  irregular  rock  with 
scattered  patches  of  snow,  and  an  Eastern  top  more 
even  in  its  outline  and  entirely  covered  with  snow. 
Between  the  two  a  glacier  of  moderate  size  flows  down 


FISHING   FOR   SHARKS  45 

the  South  face  of  the  mountain.  Still  further  East 
from  Mount  Carstensz  could  be  seen  yet  other  ridges, 
apparently  a  continuation  of  the  Carstensz  ridge. 
Occasionally  these  were  covered  with  snow  in  the  early 
morning,  but  no  other  points  of  permanent  snow  could 
be  seen  from  the  Mimika,  and  indeed  there  is  no  other 
until  Mount  Wilhelmina  is  reached  more  than  one 
hundred  miles  to  the  East.  But  studying  the  mountains 
with  field  glasses  was  an  occupation  which  could  only 
be  pursued  for  a  short  time,  for  the  clouds  formed 
early  on  the  ridges  and  by  nine  o'clock  at  the  latest 
all  the  higher  mountains  were  hidden  from  view. 

During  the  first  two  days  that  we  lay  off  the  Mimika 
we  were  visited  by  numbers  of  natives  in  canoes,  who 
came  some  to  trade  and  some  merely  to  stare  at  the 
ship  and  the  people  on  board.  The  articles  that  they 
brought  for  sale  consisted  chiefly  of  fish,  coconuts  and 
bananas  of  a  very  poor  kind,  though  we  afterwards 
came  to  regard  these  latter  as  a  delicious  luxury.  They 
also  brought  a  few  young  pigs,  young  cassowaries,  and 
other  birds  and  they  received  payment  in  beads,  scraps 
of  cloth,  empty  bottles  and  tins  and  pieces  of  metal. 
It  is  worth  while  to  record,  as  showing  the  indolence 
of  these  people,  that  on  the  third  day  no  natives  came 
to  visit  us.  Those  who  had  before  come  to  look  at 
us  had  presumably  satisfied  their  curiosity,  while  the 
others  who  had  come  to  barter  were  content  with  the 
treasures  they  had  won,  although  they  might  have 
added  greatly  to  their  wealth  if  they  had  had  the  energy 
to  catch  a  few  fish  or  pick  a  few  more  coconuts. 

Another  occupation,  which  served  to  pass  the  time, 


46  PYGMIES  AND  PAPUANS 

was  fishing  for  the  sharks  with  which  that  shallow 
sea  abounds.  They  are  blunt-nosed  animals  with  large 
dusky  patches  on  the  skin.  It  is  very  seldom  that  you 
see  them  at  the  surface  of  the  water,  and  they  appear 
to  feed  always  at  the  bottom.  The  first  that  was 
caught  was  found  to  be  full  of  fragments  of  large  crabs. 
Nobody  on  board  was  found  willing  to  eat  the  flesh, 
though  it  is  probable  that  a  few  months  afterwards 
they  would  have  been  less  fastidious,  so  the  fish  was 
thrown  overboard,  and  an  hour  or  two  later  a  second 
shark,  a  monster  about  twelve  feet  long,  was  hauled 
on  board,  and  on  being  opened  it  was  found  to  be  full 
of  large  undigested  lumps  of  (presumably)  the  first. 

On  January  8th  those  of  us  who  had  remained  on 
the  Nias  left  the  ship  and  proceeded  to  Wakatimi, 
where  we  found  that  Lieut.  Cramer  and  his  men  had 
already  done  an  immense  amount  of  work  in  clearing 
the  ground  for  the  camp.  It  appeared  that  the  place 
chosen  had  been  cleared  of  forest  at  some  time,  for 
there  were  no  large  trees  growing  on  it,  but  it  was 
covered  with  a  dense  jungle  of  shrubs  and  small  trees 
a  foot  or  so  in  thickness  and  a  tangle  of  creepers. 
Already  in  four  days  a  strip  along  the  river  bank  about 
eighty  yards  long  and  thirty  yards  wide  had  been 
cleared  of  bush,  and  as  time  went  on  the  clearing  was 
gradually  extended  until  there  were  twenty  acres  or 
more  of  open  ground  about  the  camp. 

During  the  first  two  or  three  days  the  natives,  who 
had  assembled  in  large  numbers  at  the  village  of  Waka- 
timi, helped  a  good  deal  in  clearing  the  ground  and 
landing   the   stores.     When   the   steam   launch   towing 


OUR   FIRST   LOSS  47 

the  laden  boats  arrived  at  the  camp  they  fell  upon 
the  boats  in  hordes  and  quickly  carried  everything 
up  the  steep  mud  bank,  but  this  amusement  palled 
upon  them  very  soon,  and  they  stood  about  doing  nothing 
and  hampered  the  men  at  their  work  of  unpacking. 
Accordingly  a  stout  wooden  fence  was  built  about  the 
landward  side  of  the  camp  and  over  this  they  w^re 
content  to  gaze  from  morning  till  night.  They  stood 
packed  together  five  or  six  deep,  and  the  press  of  those 
at  the  back  trying  to  catch  a  glimpse  of  what  was 
going  on  was  so  great  that  two  or  three  times  the 
fence  fell  bodily  inwards,  and  with  it  a  struggling  mass 
of  black  humanity  ;  but  it  was  not  many  days  before 
their  curiosity  was  satisfied,  and  though  they  did  not 
afford  us  very  much  assistance  it  was  fortunate  that 
they  were  not  inclined  to  molest  or  interfere  with  us 
in  any  way. 

We  had  only  been  in  our  camp  at  Wakatimi  for 
one  day  and  it  already  seemed  as  if  the  place  was 
beginning  to  show  some  sign  of  order,  when  a  melan- 
choly tragedy  threw  a  gloom  over  the  spirits  of  the 
whole  expedition.  On  the  afternoon  of  January  9th 
Mr.  Wilfred  Stalker,  who  had  had  plenty  of  experience 
of  tropical  and  Australian  jungles,  went  out  from  the 
camp  taking  his  collecting  gun  to  shoot  some  birds. 
The  usual  daily  rain  began  at  about  four  o'clock,  but 
as  we  were  all  busy  with  various  occupations  in  our 
tents  his  absence  was  not  noticed  until  after  six  o'clock, 
when  it  was  already  pitch  dark  and  the  rain  was  falling 
in  torrents.  Beyond  the  camp  was  dense  jungle  inter- 
sected by  creeks  and  pools  of  water,  difficult  enough 


48  PYGMIES  AND   PAPUANS 

to  traverse  by  day  but  absolutely  impassable  in  dark- 
ness, so  there  was  nothing  to  be  done  that  night  but 
to  hope  anxiously  that  Stalker's  bushcraft  had  prompted 
him  to  make  a  shelter  of  some  kind,  if  disaster  had 
not  already  overtaken  him.  At  dawn  Lieut.  Cramer 
sent  out  parties  of  soldiers  in  all  directions,  and  soon 
all  of  us,  Europeans,  Gurkhas,  and  native  soldiers  were 
out  searching  and  shouting  and  firing  shots.  With 
some  difficulty  we  explained  to  the  natives  what  had 
happened,  and  we  offered  them  large  rewards  if  they 
were  successful  in  finding  him,  and  many  of  them 
joined  with  us  ;  but  though  the  ground  was  carefully 
quartered  and  the  search  was  continued  all  that  day 
and  a  part  of  the  next  not  a  trace  of  him  was  found 
anywhere,  and  it  was  evidently  hopeless  that  he  could 
ever  be  found  alive.  On  the  second  day,  when  the  search 
had  been  abandoned,  the  natives  were  convinced  of  his 
fate,  and  two  of  the  more  important  people  came  over  from 
the  village  and  wailed  loudly  outside  his  empty  tent. 

On  January  12th  all  doubts  as  to  his  end  were  set 
at  rest  when  a  canoe  manned  by  four  Papuans,  smeared 
with  mud  as  their  custom  is  in  such  circumstances, 
brought  back  his  body  from  a  creek  about  half  a  mile 
from  the  camp,  where  it  had  been  found.  Up  to  that 
moment  there  had  been  present  in  our  minds  the 
horrid  suspicion  that  he  might  perhaps  have  fallen 
the  victim  to  foul  play.  We  thought  that  natives  find- 
ing him  wandering  alone  might  have  been  tempted 
by  his  possessions  and  have  murdered  him,  but  it  was 
evidently  not  so  and  we  could  only  hope  that  by  drowning 
death  had  come  swiftly  to  him. 


CAMP    OF    THE    EXPEDITION    AT    WAKATIM 


A    HOUSE    FOR    CEREMONIKS,     MIMI 


WILFRED   STALKER  49 

We  buried  him  under  a  tree  about  one  hundred  yards 
behind  the  camp,  and  in  the  absence  of  the  leader  of 
the  expedition,  who  had  gone  away  with  Rawhng  and 
Cramer  to  reconnoitre  the  river  above  Wakatimi,  I 
read  the  short  burial  service.  Besides  Marshall  and 
Shortridgc  and  myself  there  were  a  Dutch  soldier,  two 
convicts  and  about  fifty  Papuans,  who  stood  quietly 
in  a  wide  circle  about  the  grave.  I  think  the  ninetieth 
psalm  was  never  read  to  a  more  remarkable  congre- 
gation. The  grave  was  the  first  of  the  graves  of  many 
who  left  their  bones  in  New  Guinea. 

Wilfred  Stalker  was  in  his  thirty-first  year  when 
he  died.  Previously  he  had  spent  many  years  as  a 
naturalist  in  Australia  and  several  months  in  New 
Guinea.  Early  in  1909  he  returned  to  the  East  where 
he  spent  a  part  of  his  time  in  engaging  coolies  for  the 
New  Guinea  Expedition,  and  he  had  time  to  make 
an  interesting  journey  in  the  Island  of  Ceram,  where 
he  made  a  remarkable  zoological  collection.  He  joined 
us  at  Amboina  on  January  ist  so  that  we  had  not  time 
to  know  him  well,  but  his  unflagging  energy  in  the 
preparations  at  the  base-camp,  where  he  landed  with 
the  first  party,  showed  that  he  was  a  man  whom  the 
expedition  could  ill  afford  to  lose. 


CHAPTER  V 

Arrival  of  our  Ambonesc— Coolie  Considerations— Canoes  of  the  Natives 
—Making  Canoes— Preliminary  Exploration  of  the  Mimika— 
Variable  Tides— Completing  the  Camp— A  Plague  of  Flies— Also 
of  Crickets— Making  "  Atap  "—Trading  with  the  Natives— Trade 
Goods. 

After  all  the  stores  and  equipment  of  the  expedition 
had  been  landed  at  Wakatimi,  an  operation  which 
took  six  days  and  some  ten  or  more  journey's  of  the 
steam  launch  towing  many  boats  to  accomphsh,  the 
Nias  returned  to  Dobo,  and  brought  back  from  there 
on  the  14th  January  our  Ambonese  coolies,  who  had 
arrived  there  by  mail  steamer  from  Amboina.  To 
those  of  us  who  had  had  experience  of  native  carriers 
in  other  countries,  the  appearance  of  the  ninety-six 
Ambonese  came  as  something  of  a  shock.  When  the 
boats  crowded  with  them  came  within  sight  of  the  camp 
the  natives  cried  out  that  our  women  were  coming,  and 
they  might  well  be  excused  for  their  mistake.  With 
their  wide  straw  hats  and  coloured  coats  and  shirts  and 
gay  sarongs  they  had  not  much  the  appearance  of  men, 
and  we  wondered  what  sort  of  people  they  would  be 
to  force  a  way  through  the  trackless  country.  When 
they  landed,  our  first  impression  of  their  unsuitableness 
was  rather  strengthened  than  otherwise.  Every  man 
(to  give  them  a  dignity  which  very  few  of  them  deserved) 
had  a  large  wooden  or  tin  box  as  well  as  a  huge  bundle 


CANOE-MAKING  :    ROUGHLY    SHAPING    THE    FELLED    TREE. 


AMBONESE   COOLIES  51 

of  bedding  and  mats.  Their  average  age  appeared  to 
be  about  sixteen  years,  and  though  they  were  said  to 
be  the  best  men  obtainable  in  Amboina,  the  physique 
of  most  of  them  was  wretched.  It  was  evidently  useless 
to  keep  so  many  feeble  creatures,  so  it  was  decided 
to  keep  fifty  of  the  more  promising  and  send  the  rest 
back  to  Amboina  by  the  Nias,  which  was  waiting  at 
the  mouth  of  the  Mimika  until  the  following  day.  The 
whole  gang  was  paraded  and  a  more  hopeless  looking 
lot  it  w^ould  be  hard  to  imagine.  With  great  difficulty 
we  picked  out  fifty  who,  though  they  had  little  appear- 
ance of  strength,  were  not  obviously  crippled  by  disease, 
and  the  forty-six  others  were  sent  away  without  having 
done  a  single  day's  work. 

The  question  of  coolies,  as  we  were  to  find  by  bitter 
experience  during  the  ensuing  months,  is  the  point 
that  determines  the  success  or  failure  of  an  expedition. 
Mr.  Stalker  had  left  England  charged  with  the  duty 
of  engaging  coolies  for  this  expedition.  It  was  hoped 
that  he  would  be  able  to  get  a  number  of  men  in  the 
Ke  Islands,  but  failing  to  engage  them  there  he  had 
seen  in  Amboina  his  only  chance  of  recruiting  a  suffi- 
cient number  of  men.  No  blame  can  be  attached  to 
him,  for  he  had  had  no  experience  of  the  kind  before 
and  his  instructions  were  not  very  detailed,  but  it  was 
a  mistake  which  seriously  delayed  the  progress  of  the 
expedition. 

As  well  as  the  trouble  involved  in  trying  to  make 
a  silk  purse  of  efficient  coolies  out  of  the  sow's  ear  of 
the  Amboina  rabble  we  were  confronted  by  another 
difficulty  of  transport.     It  has  been  mentioned  above 


52  PYGMIES  AND   PAPUANS 

(page  43)  that  before  we  arrived  in  the  country  it 
was  expected  that  we  should  find  rising  ground  close 
to  the  sea,  and  that  in  a  few  days'  journey  at  the  most 
we  should  reach  an  altitude  of  three  thousand  feet  or 
upwards,  but  the  discovery  that  there  was  a  tract  of 
level  country  hardly  above  sea  level  extending  from 
the  coast  to  the  foot  of  the  mountains  thirty  miles 
inland  entirely  upset  our  calculations.  Had  we  known 
this  before  we  should  necessarily  have  brought  a  launch 
and  boats  to  tow  our  stores  up  the  many  miles  of 
navigable  river,  and  b}^  so  doing  we  should  have  saved 
ourselves  many  weeks  of  valuable  time  and  an  infinity 
of  labour.  It  is  worth  while  to  record  this  fact,  not 
for  the  object  of  drawing  attention  to  any  deficiencies 
in  the  organisation  of  the  expedition,  but  to  demonstrate 
the  uselessness  of  entering  an  unknown  countr\^  without 
having  made  a  preliminary  reconnaissance. 

An  urgent  message  was  despatched  to  the  Navy 
Department  in  Java  begging  them  to  supply  us  with 
a  steam  launch  at  the  earliest  opportunity,  but  com- 
munications are  slow  in  that  part  of  the  world,  and  it 
was  not  until  ten  weeks  afterwards  that  the  launch 
arrived  at  the  Mimika.  Its  career  was  brief  and  in- 
glorious. It  made  two  or  three  journeys  at  snail's 
pace  up  the  river  before  it  finally  broke  down  altogether 
and  was  sent  back  to  Java. 

In  June  we  purchased  from  the  pearlfishers  at  Dobo 
a  petrol  motor-boat,  which  made  several  successful 
trips  up  the  river  towing  large  quantities  of  stores,  and 
then  it  was  badly  damaged  by  coming  into  violent 
contact  with  a  sunken  tree,  and  it  was  several  months 


THE   NATIVE   CANOE  53 

before  it  could  be  repaired  suflicieiitly  to  float.  Tlius 
it  happened  that  nearly  all  the  river  transport  of  the 
expedition  was  laboriously  carried  out  in  canoes. 

The  canoes  used  by  the  natives  on  the  Mimika  and 
neighbouring  rivers  arc  simple  "  dug-outs,"  that  is  they 
are  made  from  one  tree  trunk  without  any  joinery  at 
all.  They  vary  considerably  in  size  but  the  length 
of  an  average  canoe  is  about  thirty-five  feet.  The 
sides  curve  inward  towards  the  gunwale  so  that  in 
section  the  canoe  forms  a  large  segment  of  a  circle. 
The  breadth  at  the  gunwale  is  about  eighteen  inches 
and  the  breadth  at  the  widest  part  from  eighteen  to 
twenty-four  inches.  The  gunwales  are  almost  hori- 
zontal, though  in  some  boats  there  is  a  considerable 
"  sheer  "  towards  the  end  of  the  canoe.  They  end  in 
a  square  bow  and  at  the  stern  they  come  together  to 
a  fine  point.  The  bottom  of  a  canoe — there  is  no  keel 
— slopes  finely  up  from  the  middle  towards  the  ends 
so  that  when  the  canoe  is  afloat  several  feet  of  its  length 
at  bow  and  stern  are  out  of  water. 

The  square  bow  of  the  canoe  is  carved  in  a  more 
or  less  symmetrical  fashion  and  there  is  usually  a  narrow 
margin  of  ornamental  carving  at  intervals  along  the 
sides.  A  common  feature  of  this  carving,  as  also  of 
the  other  native  ornaments,  is  an  object  which  is  in- 
tended to  represent  the  human  eye.  Occasionally 
they  attach  to  the  bow  of  the  canoe,  one  on  either 
side  and  one  in  the  middle,  three  long  boards  carved 
in  a  sort  of  fretwork  manner  and  painted  red  and  white. 
These  project  about  four  feet  in  front  of  the  bow  and 
give   it    somewhat    the    appearance    of    a   bird's   beak. 


54  PYGMIES  AND  PAPUANS 

The  inside  of  the  canoe  is  sometimes  whitened  with 
lime  or  sago  powder  but  is  otherwise  not  ornamented. 
A  few  feet  from  the  stern,  where  the  bottom  begins 
to  slope  upwards,  a  low  partition  of  wood  is  left  form- 
ing as  it  were  a  sort  of  bulkhead  ;  the  space  behind 
this  is  filled  with  sand  on  which  a  fire  is  kept  burning. 

Before  we  came  to  the  country  the  whole  business 
of  canoe-making  from  the  first  felling  of  the  tree  to 
the  final  hollowing  out  of  the  inside  was  done  with 
stone  axes  and  the  carving  was  done  with  sharpened 
shells,  a  labour  which  it  is  difficult  to  realise,  so  it  is 
not  surprising  that  the  natives  take  very  great  care 
of  their  boats.  They  never  allow  water  to  stand  in 
them  for  long,  and  at  the  end  of  a  storm  of  rain  the 
first  thing  they  do  is  to  go  to  the  river  and  bail  the 
water  out  of  their  canoes,  which  they  do  by  scooping 
it  out  with  the  blade  of  a  paddle.  They  also  take  good 
care  of  the  outside  and  frequently  char  them  with  fire 
to  kill  the  worms,  which  otherwise  quickly  destroy 
wood  in  brackish  water. 

The  tree  most  commonly  used  for  making  canoes 
1^  is  Octomeles  moluccana,  which  has  a  smooth  pale  trunk 
devoid  of  branches  for  a  long  way  above  the  ground. 
When  they  can  do  so  they  choose  a  tree  growing  close 
to  the  river  bank,  but  this  is  not  always  possible  and 
we  found  a  place  where  a  tree  for  a  canoe  had  been 
felled  fully  three  hundred  yards  from  the  water.  The 
trunk  is  roughly  shaped  where  it  lies  and  is  then  hauled 
with  immense  toil  over  logs  laid  on  a  rough  track  to  the 
river ;  thence  it  is  towed  to  the  village  where  the 
hollowing  and  shaping  is  done  at  leisure.     We  saw  a 


PURCHASING   CANOES  55 

large  number  of  canoes  made  at  Parimaii,  and  in  nearly 
every  case  the  balance  was  perfect  when  they  were 
first  put  into  the  water. 

The  canoes  are  usually  propelled  by  paddles  with 
long  thin  shafts  and  wide  blades  which  are  often  beau- 
tifully carved,  but  in  shallow  places  or  rapid  water 
the  natives  generally  employ  a  long  pole  in  the  use  of 
which  they  are  very  expert.  It  is  easy  enough  to 
stand  up  and  paddle  or  pole  in  large  canoes,  but  the 
smaller  craft  are  very  top-heavy,  and  the  natives  per- 
form wonderful  feats  of  balancing  in  navigating  them. 
Their  education  begins  early  for  we  saw  in  one  of  the 
villages  small  canoes  three  or  four  feet  long,  in  which 
the  children  begin  to  learn  the  craft  of  the  waterman 
almost  before  they  have  learned  to  walk. 

Though  the  people  value  their  canoes  very  highly 
they  w^ere  anxious  enough  to  part  with  them  in  exchange 
for  our  knives  and  pieces  of  metal,  of  which  they  had 
none  at  all,  and  we  very  soon  had  a  small  fleet  of  canoes. 
The  first  two  were  bought  for  a  knife  apiece,  but  the  price 
soon  rose  to  an  axe  for  a  canoe,  and  in  the  course  of 
several  months  it  had  still  further  risen  to  two  axes 
or  even  two  axes  and  a  knife. 

Within  a  few  days  of  the  arrival  of  our  coolies  we 
had  purchased  half  a  dozen  canoes  and  preparations 
were  made  to  send  an  exploring  party  up  the  river. 
At  that  time  we  were  none  of  us  skilful  canoe-men  and 
it  was  considered  safer  to  use  the  canoes  as  rafts  by 
lashing  two  side  by  side  and  securing  a  platform  of 
bamboos  across  the  top.  This  was  a  most  cumbrous 
arrangement   which    added   enormously   to   the   labour 


56  PYGMIES  AND   PAPUANS 

of  paddling,  and  after  the  first  journey  it  was  never 
repeated. 

On  the  i8th  January,  Goodfellow,  RawHng,  and 
Shortridge  with  twenty-four  cooHes,  six  Gurkhas,  and 
a  small  party  of  Javanese  soldiers  in  the  charge  of  a 
Dutch  sergeant  started  up  the  river.  They  took  with 
them  about  a  dozen  natives,  hoping  that  they  would 
work  hard  at  paddling  and  would  be  useful  in  other 
wa3^s,  but  they  were  a  perpetual  nuisance  calling  out 
for  their  wives  and  wanting  to  stop  to  eat  or  sleep ;  they 
finished  by  stealing  one  of  the  canoes  and  deserting 
the  night  before  they  would  have  been  sent  back  to 
their  homes.  With  them  went  another  of  our  cherished 
illusions  that  we  should  be  able  to  get  a  great  deal  of 
assistance  from  the  natives  of  the  country.  The  party 
proceeded  up  the  river  at  an  incredibly  slow  rate  on 
account  of  the  clumsy  rafts,  and  for  four  days  saw  no 
signs  of  inhabitants.  On  the  fifth  day  they  found  one 
isolated  hut,  and  two  days  later  after  passing  a  few 
scattered  huts  they  arrived  at  the  village  of  Parimau, 
above  which  place  the  river  appeared  to  be  hardly 
navigable. 

The  welcome  accorded  to  the  party  by  the  natives 
of  Parimau  was  as  enthusiastic  as  that  at  Wakatimi 
described  above,  the  people  showing  their  delight  by 
smearing  themselves  with  mud  and  shedding  copious 
tears.  During  the  following  days,  when  a  camp  was 
being  made,  hundreds  of  natives  flocked  into  the  place 
to  see  the  strange  white  men,  who  were  exhibited  to 
the  new-comers  with  a  sort  of  proprietary  air  by  the 
natives  of  Parimau. 


TIDES    OF  THE   RIVER  57 

In  the  meantime  a  great  deal  of  work  was  necessary 
to  put   in  order  the  base-camp   at  Wakatimi,   and  to 
render  it  secure  against  an  attack,  should  the  natives 
ever    alter    their    friendly    attitude    towards    us.     The 
bush   was   completely   cleared   for    some    distance   and 
a  stout  fence  built  about  the  camp.      Then  it  was  found 
that  at  high  tide,  and  especially  at  spring  tide,  a  large 
part  of  the  camp  was  flooded  and  this  necessitated  a 
great  amount  of  levehing  and  trenching  and  banking, 
a  task  which  appealed  to  the  fenland  instinct  of  Cramer. 
The  tide  made  itself  felt  in  the  river  for  several  miles 
above   Wakatimi,  where  there   was   a  rise   and  fall   of 
about   ten   feet,   but   the   exact   tidal   movements   were 
very   difficult   to   recognise.     On   some   days   two   tides 
were    distinctly    seen,    while    on    many    others    there 
appeared  to  be  only  one.     Their  movements  were  further 
complicated   by    the    very    variable    amount    of    water 
brought  down  by  the  river.     Sometimes  the  river  was 
almost   stagnant,    but   at   other   times   it   swept   down 
bank-high  with  a  strong  current  for  days  at  a  time, 
and  no  flow  of  the  tide  could  be  noticed.     The  river 
Watuka,    which   joins   the    Miniika   a   few  miles  below 
Wakatimi,  had  a  much  greater  volume  of  water  than 
the  latter  river,  and  often  when  the  tide  was  rising  its 
waters  were  easily  recognisable  by  their  white  colour 
floating  up  past  the  camp  and  holding  back  the  waters 
of  the  Mimika  in  the  same  way  that  the  Blue  Nile, 
when  it  is  in  flood,  forms  a  pond  of  the  White  Nile. 

It  was  unfortunate  that  no  suitable  place  for  the 
base-camp  could  be  found  above  the  tidal  water,  because 
it  increased  the  difficulty  of  supplying  the  camp  with 


58  PYGMIES  AND   PAPUANS 

drinking  water,  and  at  times  when  there  was  not  much 
fresh  water  coming  down  the  river  the  ebb  and  flow 
of  the  tide  washed  the  refuse  backwards  and  forwards 
in  front  of  the  camp.  Water  was  boiled  and  filtered 
every  day  in  quantities  large  enough  for  every  man 
in  the  camp  to  have  as  much  as  he  wished,  but  the 
value  of  this  precaution  was  to  a  large  extent  neutralised 
by  the  Malay  habit  of  washing  out  the  mouth  with  the 
water  in  which  the  man  bathes. 

A  wooden  landing  stage  for  canoes  was  built  out 
over  the  muddy  bank,  and  a  bathing  place  was  cut  off 
from  the  river  by  a  wooden  fence  to  protect  bathers 
from  crocodiles  and  sharks,  both  of  which  were  occa- 
sionally seen,  but  as  the  natives  bathed  constantly 
without  showing  any  fear  of  either  animal  the  precaution 
was  perhaps  needless. 

At  that  time  w^hen  the  ground  was  being  cleared 
we  began  to  be  plagued  by  large  blue-bottle  flies,  which 
swarmed  about  the  camp  and  laid  their  eggs  every- 
where. One  of  their  favourite  laying  grounds  was 
in  our  bedding,  which  in  a  hot  damp  climate  must 
alwa3^s  be  hung  out  to  air  when  the  sun  shines.  You 
would  find  two  folds  of  your  blanket  stuck  together 
with  horrible  masses  of  eggs  and  if,  as  sometimes  hap- 
pened, you  did  not  scrape  them  all  away  you  would 
wake  up  at  night  and  find  yourself  crawling  with 
maggots.  There  are  some  people  who  are  afraid  of 
spiders,  but  the  most  timorous  of  mortals  must  find 
the  homely  spider  preferable  to  the  loathsome  blow 
fly.  The  house  where  we  mostly  lived  at  Wakatimi 
and  where  we  had   our  meals   was  immediately  filled 


FLIES  AND    CRICKETS  59 

with  blue-bottles  the  moment  our  food  was  brought 
in,  so  we  encouraged  the  larger  sort  of  spider  to  live 
there  and  one  old  fellow  who  lived  under  the  corner 
of  the  table  used  to  come  out  at  meal  times  and  take 
his  toll  of  flies,  and  in  the  course  of  time  he  became  so 
tame  that  he  w^ould  take  a  living  fly  out  of  your  lingers. 

At  the  same  time,  and  indeed  during  the  whole 
of  our  stay  in  the  country,  we  were  greatly  annoyed 
by  the  depredations  of  very  large  crickets.  Not  content 
with  making  a  most  distracting  noise  by  night  these 
horrible  creatures  did  endless  damage  to  our  eatable 
possessions.  They  invaded  the  sacks  in  which  w-e  kept 
our  scanty  garments,  socks,  vests  and  the  like,  and 
riddled  them  into  holes,  and  they  appeared  to  have  a 
special  partiality  for  sponges  and  brushes,  which  they 
devoured  completely.  Even  more  serious  were  their 
attacks  on  folded  tents  or  sacks  of  rice  and  flour,  which 
had  to  be  constantly  taken  out  of  the  store  houses  and 
repaired.  When  these  things  were  taken  out  of  the 
house  a  large  number  of  crickets  were  taken  out  too, 
and  then  was  the  chance  for  the  Kingfishers  {Halcyon 
sandus)  w^hich  darted  dow-n  and  snapped  them  up.  A 
pair  of  these  beautiful  little  birds  haunted  the  camp 
and  became  so  tame  that  they  would  fly  down  from 
the  roof  of  a  house  and  pick  up  a  cricket  within  a  foot 
or  two  of  a  man. 

When  the  ground  had  been  well  cleared  and  levelled, 
we  set  about  the  business  of  building  barracks  for  the 
men  and  store  houses  for  the  provisions  and  equipment. 
The  Dutch  contingent  had  brought  with  them  regula- 
tion army  barrack  frames,  pieces  of  seasoned  wood  of 


6o  PYGMIES  AND   PAPUANS 

definite  lengths  which  are  fitted  together  by  bolts  and 
screws,  and  form  the  skeleton  of  excellent  houses.  We 
had  nothing  of  the  kind,  but  the  jungle  supphed  plenty 
of  wood  and  our  houses,  though  less  regular  than  those 
of  the  Dutch,  were  very  soon  built.  It  is  easy  enough 
to  put  up  the  framework  of  a  house  in  a  place  where 
there  is  plenty  of  timber,  but  the  walls  and  the  roof 
are  a  more  difficult  matter.  Fortunately  the  natives 
were  adepts  in  the  art  of  making  "  atap,"  which  they 
use  for  roofing  their  own  huts,  and  they  were  soon 
eagerly  making  it  for  us  in  exchange  for  our  trade 
goods. 

The  best  "  atap  "  is  made  from  the  leaves  of  the 
,^  Nipa  palm  (Nipa  fruticans)  which  grows  abundantly 
in  the  swampy  country.  Almost  equally  good  "  atap  " 
can  be  made  from  the  Sago  palm,  but  the  leaves  of 
the  Coconut  palm  shrivel  quickly  and  are  of  no  use  for 
the  purpose.  The  method  of  the  manufacture  of 
"  atap  "  is  briefly  as  follows  :  Leaflets  of  the  palm  are 
stripped  from  the  stem,  which  is  then  split  into  three 
or  four  sticks  of  about  an  inch  and  a  half  in  diameter 
and  five  or  six  feet  in  length.  The  man  begins  by 
taking  up  a  leaf  and  folding  it  in  the  middle,  thus  break- 
ing the  mid-rib  of  the  leaf.  He  then  frees  the  mid-rib 
from  the  surrounding  leaf  for  a  short  distance  and 
breaks  off  a  piece  about  three  inches  long  for  use  pre- 
sently. Then  holding  the  stick  near  the  end  he  pushes 
the  free  end  of  the  mid-rib,  which  is  separated  from 
the  leaf,  into  the  soft  substance  of  the  stick  and  folds 
the  leaf  once  round  the  stick  in  such  a  way  that  its 
two  free  ends  lie  one  upon  the  other.     He  then  clips 


MAKING         AT' 


BUILDING   MATERIAL  6i 

together  the  free  ends  with  the  short  piece  he  had 
broken  from  the  mid-rib.  He  then  repeats  the  process 
with  another  leaf,  making  each  one  slightly  overlap 
the  last,  until  the  stick  is  completely  covered  with 
folded  leaves.  It  should  be  said  that  each  leaf  is  about 
three  inches  wide  and  four  feet  long  so  that  the  free 
ends,  when  the  leaf  is  folded,  lie  about  two  feet  from 
the  stick.  "  Atap  "  is  always  made  by  the  men,  never 
by  the  women,  and  a  quick  worker  will  make  a  complete 
piece  in  about  ten  minutes. 

The  method  of  roofing  with  "  atap  "  is  very  simple. 
Pieces  are  fixed  by  strands  of  rattan  to  the  timbers 
of  the  roofing  beginning  from  below  and  overlapping 
each  other  hke  tiles.  The  stick  end  of  the  "atap"  is 
uppermost  and  the  free  ends  point  downwards.  When 
there  is  no  lack  of  "  atap  "  and  the  pieces  can  be  laid 
on  the  roof  very  closely  together  it  forms  a  most  efficient 
thatch,  which  keeps  the  house  tolerably  cool  in  the 
hot  weather  and  is  impervious  to  the  heaviest  down- 
fall of  rain. 

The  demand  for  "  atap  "  started  our  regular  trade 
with  the  natives,  it  brought  us  into  friendly  relations 
with  them  and  they  soon  discovered  that  they  could 
put  confidence  in  us.  When  they  found  that  we  really 
paid  them,  as  we  promised,  in  beads  and  cloth,  there 
was  keen  competition  in  the  "  atap  "  trade  and  they 
brought  us  as  much  as  we  wanted.  For  a  few  pieces 
only  they  received  beads,  while  for  ten  pieces  and 
upwards  we  paid  them  in  cloth  and  they  adopted  various 
tricks  to  obtain  cloth,  when  they  knew  that  the  amount 
they    brought    was    only    worth    beads.     One    of   their 


62  PYGMIES  AND  PAPUANS 

dodges  was  to  bring  old  pieces  of  "  atap  "  from  their 
own  houses  to  increase  the  size  of  the  pile,  and  sometimes 
a  man  would  steal  two  or  three  pieces  from  the  pile 
of  another  man  who  had  already  been  paid,  but  they 
were  always  found  out  and  were  not  in  the  least  ashamed 
of  themselves.  It  was  important  to  keep  the  price 
low,  because  we  very  well  knew  that  when  the  people 
had  obtained  as  much  cloth  and  as  many  beads  as  they 
wanted  they  would  never  do  any  more  work,  and  that 
did  occur  after  a  few  months.  They  greatly  enjoyed 
a  httle  foolery.  For  instance,  when  you  were  paying 
them  in  cloth  it  was  much  more  appreciated  if  you 
wound  it  artistically  about  the  recipient's  head  than 
if  you  merely  thrust  it  into  his  hands  ;  and  in  paying 
a  man  in  beads  it  was  thought  a  great  joke  if  you  let 
them  slowly  trickle  into  his  palm  out  of  your  closed 
fist.  His  smile  would  grow  with  the  pile  of  beads  in 
his  hand,  and  he  always  hoped  to  find  some  more 
concealed  between  your  fingers. 

In  addition  to  "  atap "  they  also  brought  other 
things  for  trade,  sometimes  fish  from  the  sea  which 
were  generally  uneatable,  and  sometimes  delicious  prawns 
six  or  eight  inches  long  from  the  river  estuary.  There 
was  a  constant  trade  in  coconuts  which  grew  in  some 
numbers  about  Wakatimi,  and  occasionally  we  bought 
a  bunch  of  bananas.  Living  birds  of  many  kinds, 
cassowaries,  pigeons,  kingfishers,  lories  and  parrots  were 
often  brought  for  sale,  but  the  poor  creatures  were 
generally  taken  straight  from  the  nest,  and  the  soldiers 
and  coolies  who  bought  them  quickly  stuffed  them 
to   death   with   rice.     Some   of  the   lories    throve   and 


TRADING   WITH   THE   NATIVES  63 

became  tame  enough  to  fly  about  at  liberty,  and  the 
cassowaries  became  quite  a  pest  in  the  camp. 

So  keen  did  the  people  become  on  trading  that  they 
would  barter  all  their  worldly  possessions  for  European 
goods.  Stone  clubs  and  axes,  bows  and  arrows,  spears 
and  drums,  the  skulls  of  their  forebears,  indeed  all 
their  moveable  goods  were  brought  to  us  for  exchange. 
It  may  sound  rather  a  mean  transaction  to  buy  from 
a  Papuan  a  stone  axe,  which  has  probably  been  in 
his  family  for  generations,  for  a  small  knife  or  coloured 
handkerchief,  but  he  was  always  delighted  with  the 
exchange  and  when  both  parties  to  it  are  satisfied  a 
bargain  may  be  considered  a  just  one. 

Our  trade  goods  consisted  mostly  of  coloured  beads, 
red  cloth,  knives  of  various  sizes,  and  axes.  Of  these 
the  red  cloth  was  by  far  the  most  useful  and  the  most 
sought  after.  The  Dutch  had  cloth  of  various  shades 
and  patterns,  but  the  natives,  with  a  true  eye  for  colour, 
knew  that  our  red  stuff  suited  their  dark  skins  better 
than  any  shade  of  green  or  blue.  The  axes  were  given 
in  exchange  for  canoes,  and  knives  were  mostly  used 
to  pay  the  men  who  carried  for  us  in  the  interior. 
Fish  hooks  were  greatly  appreciated  by  the  natives  of 
the  coast  villages,  but  the  Jews'  harps  of  which  we  had 
a  large  quantity,  though  they  are  greatly  in  demand 
among  the  Papuans  of  British  New  Guinea  and  in  some 
of  the  Pacific  Islands,  were  of  no  use  to  us  for  trade, 
and  the  few  we  gave  away  were  used  either  as  orna- 
ments round  the  neck  or  as  ear-rings.  There  was 
always  a  great  demand  for  cast-off  clothing,  but  a  Papuan 
wearing  a  pair  of  tattered  trousers  or  a   fragment  of 


64  PYGMIES  AND   PAPUANS 

a  shirt  was  so  unpleasant  to  look  at  and  he  generally 
became  so  demoralised  in  character,  that  we  made  it 
a  rule  not  to  give  them  any  of  our  rags.  Empty  bottles 
were  of  course  greatly  sought  after  and  the  many 
thousands  of  tins  which  we  emptied  during  the  course 
of  the  expedition  were  wealth  untold  to  a  people,  who 
up  to  that  time  had  possessed  no  sort  of  vessel. 


CHAPTER  VI 

Difficulties  of  Food — Coolies'  Rations — Choice  of  Provisions — Trans- 
porting Supplies  up  the  Mimika — Description  of  the  River — A 
Day's  Work — Monotonous  Scenery — Crowned  Pigeons — Birds  of 
Paradise  and  Others — Snakes,  Bees  and  other  Creatures — Rapids 
and  Clear  Water — The  Seasons — Wind — Rain — Thunderstorms — 
Halley's  Comet. 

One  of  the  principal  obstacles  in  the  way  of  successful 
exploration  in  Dutch  New  Guinea  is  the  lack  of  food 
in  the  country  itself.  It  is  true  that  in  the  low-lying 
swampy  districts  near  the  coast  there  are  plenty  of 
Sago-palms,  but  the  majority  of  Malays  are  not  sago 
eaters  except  under  compulsion,  and  the  preparation 
of  sago  to  make  it  only  tolerably  palatable  is  a  tedious 
business.  Moreover  the  first  object  of  an  expedition 
to  the  mountains  is  to  leave  the  swamps  behind  as 
soon  as  possible.  So  it  follows  that  every  scrap  of 
food,  for  the  coolies  as  well  as  for  the  Europeans,  has 
to  be  brought  into  the  country  from  outside,  and  it 
will  be  evident  that,  when  the  means  of  transport  are 
distressingly  slow,  the  provisions  must  diminish  con- 
siderably in  quantity  as  they  are  carried  towards  the 
interior. 

The  mainstay  of  the  food  of  Malay  coolies  and 
soldiers  is  rice,  of  which  the  daily  ration  is  one  katti 
(ij  pounds)  ;  to  this  is  added  about  a  quarter  of  a 
pound  of  dried  meat  or  dried  fish.     Once  or  twice  a 


^ 


66  PYGMIES  AND   PAPUANS 

week  the  rice  was  replaced  by  kachang  ijau,  a  small 
round  green  bean,  which  is  supposed  to  be  of  use  in 
preventing  the  onset  of  beri-beri,  though  it  is  very 
doubtful  whether  this  is  the  case ;  the  beans  are 
boiled  and  are  eaten  either  with  salt  or  with  brown 
Javanese  sugar.  A  full  ration  for  a  coolie  also  includes 
tea,  coffee,  salt  and  chillies.  When  it  is  remembered 
that  the  numbers  of  the  expedition  were  never  less  than 
one  hundred  and  twenty  and  were  often  more  than 
one  hundred  and  sixtj^  and  since  it  was  con- 
sidered advisable  always  to  have  a  supply  for  several 
months  in  advance  in  the  eventuality  of  communica- 
tion with  Amboina  becoming  impossible,  it  can  be 
imagined  that  the  amount  of  stores  necessary  for  the 
whole  party  was  no  small  thing.  The  management 
of  the  stores  of  Cramer's  party  alone,  of  which 
every  detail  had  to  be  accounted  for  to  the  Govern- 
ment, occupied  the  full  time  of  a  Dutch  sergeant  and  a 
native  clerk. 

Not  only  was  a  great  deal  of  labour  involved  in 
dealing  with  such  an  immense  bulk  of  stores,  but  there 
was  considerable  difficulty  in  preserving  them  from 
the  ill  effects  of  the  climate.  Our  first  consignment  of 
rice  arrived  in  sacks,  and  the  futility  of  that  method 
of  packing  was  apparent,  when  a  great  quantity  of  it 
was  spoilt  by  a  shower  of  rain  between  the  steamer  and 
the  base-camp.  The  next  lot  was  packed  in  tins  with 
lids ;  when  these  were  turned  upside  down  the  rice 
trickled  out  or  water  trickled  in,  and  again  a  large 
quantity  was  lost  or  spoilt.  After  that  it  was  put  into 
tins  of  which  the  tops  were  soldered  down,  but  even 


SUPPLIES  67 

that  was  not  quite  successful,  for  it  often  happened 
that  a  pin-hole  was  left  unsoldered,  through  which 
moisture  would  eventually  find  its  way  and  the  rice 
be  spoilt. 

Even  more  difficult  than  the  rice  to  keep  dry  were 
the  dried  fish  and  dried  meat,  which  were  sent  to  us 
packed  in  wooden  boxes ;  the  stuff  quickly  became 
sodden  from  the  moisture-laden  atmosphere,  and  although 
we  kept  coolies  constantly  employed  in  drying  it  in 
the  sun,  an  enormous  amount  of  it  became  rotten  and 
was  thrown  awa}^  The  only  effectual  method  of  pre- 
serving the  dried  meat  and  fish  is  to  seal  it  up  like 
the  rice  in  soldered  tins.  The  tin  always  used  for  this 
purpose  is  the  rectangular  tin  in  which  kerosene  oil 
is  imported  to  the  East ;  filled  with  rice  it  weighs  about 
forty  pounds. 

In  writing  the  history  of  this  expedition  I  should 
not  be  honest  if  I  were  to  refrain  from  mentioning  the 
fact  that  some  of  our  own  stores  were,  to  say  the  least, 
ill-chosen.  It  appeared  that  a  large  quantity  of  stores 
had  been  bought  from  the  Shackleton  Expedition, 
which  had  returned  from  the  Antarctic  a  few  months 
before  we  left  England.  However  suitable  those  pro- 
visions may  have  been  for  a  Polar  expedition,  they  were 
not  the  sort  of  thing  one  would  have  chosen  for  a 
journey  in  the  Tropics.  For  instance,  large  tins  of 
"  bully-beef  "  are  excellent  in  a  cold  climate,  but  when 
you  open  them  near  the  Equator  you  find  that  they 
consist  of  pallid  lumps  of  pink  flesh  swimming  in  a 
nasty  gravy.  Pea-soup  and  pea-flour,  of  which  we 
had  nearly  four  hundred  pounds'  weight,  strike  terror 


68  PYGMIES  AND   PAPUANS 

into  the  stoutest  heart,  when  the  temperature  is  86° 
in  the  shade.  Pickles  are  all  very  well  in  their  way 
for  those  that  like  them,  but  one  hundred  and  sixty 
bottles  was  more  than  a  generous  allowance.  Punch, 
in  commenting  on  a  newspaper  misprint  which  stated 
that  "  the  British  Ornitholognists'  Union  Expedition 
"  to  Papua  was  joined  at  Singapore  by  ten  pickled 
*'  Gurkhas/'  suggested  that  it  was  "  no  doubt  a  mis- 
"  print  for  gherkins."  We  were  glad  that  Mr.  Punch 
was  mistaken  and  that  we  had  not  increased  our  store 
of  pickles  at  Singapore. 

The  packing  was  almost  as  remarkable  as  the  choice 
of  the  stores  themselves  :  they  were  secured  in  strong 
packing  cases  of  large  and  variable  size  fastened  with 
bands  of  iron  and  an  incredible  number  of  nails,  suit- 
able enough  to  withstand  the  banging  of  Polar  storms, 
but  not  well  adapted  to  their  present  purpose.  The 
boxes  were  all  too  big  for  convenient  transport,  and 
as  each  one  was  filled  with  food  of  one  kind  only  every 
box  had  to  be  opened  at  once  and  a  selection  made 
from  them. 

Here  it  must  be  said  that,  in  response  to  our  com- 
ments on  the  stores  and  the  packing,  the  Committee 
sent  out  to  us  an  excellent  supply  of  provisions  from 
Messrs.  Fortnum  and  Mason,  properly  packed  in  Hght 
"  Vanesta "  cases.  These  reached  us  at  the  end  of 
August  and  during  the  rest  of  our  stay  in  the  country 
we  fared  well. 

We  took  with  us  a  small  supply  of  whisky  and  brandy, 
which  was  often  acceptable,  and  I  beheve  that  in  an 
excessively  damp  climate  a  small  quantity  of  alcohol 


JANGBIR    AND    HERKAJJI,    olKKHA,-^. 


SUPPLIES  69 

may  be  beneficial.  The  Dutch  took  with  them  dry 
Hollands  gin,  which  is  drunk  with  a  small  quantity  of 
bitters  before  dinner  ;  it  certainly  has  the  effect  of 
coaxing  your  appetite  for  tinned  foods,  all  of  which, 
when  you  have  lived  on  them  for  a  few  months,  have 
the  same  dull  taste. 

It  may  be  thought  that  the  above  discourse  on  the 
subject  of  food  is  unduly  long,  but  I  shall  make  no 
apology  for  it,  because  equally  with  the  question  of 
transport  the  question  of  food  is  of  paramount  im- 
portance. The  recital  of  some  of  the  mistakes  that 
we  made  may  serve  as  a  warning  to  others,  who  wish 
to  visit  a  similar  district.  In  countries  like  Africa 
and  many  parts  of  Asia,  where  the  people  cultivate  the 
soil  and  where  there  are  numbers  of  game  animals, 
you  may  always  look  forward  to  varying  your  fare 
with  some  fresh  food,  either  animal  or  vegetable  ;  but 
when  you  go  to  New  Guinea  you  must  be  prepared  to 
live  wholly  on  dried  and  tinned  foods,  and  that  is 
only  possible  when  they  are  varied  and  of  the  best 
manufacture. 

During  the  first  months  of  our  stay  in  New  Guinea 
most  of  the  energies  of  the  expedition  were  spent  in 
transporting  supplies  from  the  base-camp  at  Wakatimi 
to  the  camp  at  Parimau  up  the  Mimika  River.  And 
indeed  it  may  be  said  that  this  was  one  of  the  principal 
occupations  of  the  expedition  from  beginning  to  end  ; 
for  our  coolies  were  very  soon  worn  out  by  sickness 
and  the  unaccustomed  labour,  so  that  they  had  to  be 
sent  back  to  their  homes,  and  by  the  time  that  a  fresh 
batch   of  coolies   arrived  in   the   country  the    store   of 


^ 


70  PYGMIES  AND   PAPUANS 

provisions  at  Parimau  was  exhausted  and  the  process 
of  taking  up  a  fresh  supply  had  to  be  begun  again. 

It  was  not  until  our  third  batch  of  coolies  came 
at  the  end  of  December,  that  we  were  able  to  accumu- 
late enough  stores  at  Parimau  to  serve  as  a  base  for 
a  moderately  long  expedition  from  that  place.  Before 
that  time  it  had  never  been  possible  to  make  a  longer 
march  than  three  days  from  Parimau,  and  there  had 
been  long  periods  when  from  lack  of  coolies  everything 
had  been  at  a  standstill.  Those  times  were  of  course 
excessively  trying  both  to  the  health  and  to  the  tempers 
of  the  members  of  the  expedition.  It  was  irksome 
beyond  words  to  see  day  after  day  the  mountains  in 
the  distance  and  to  be  unable  to  move  a  step  nearer 
to  them. 

The  distance  from  Wakatimi  to  Parimau,  though 
^  only  twenty-two  miles  as  the  crow  flies,  was  about 
forty  miles  by  water,  and  it  took  from  five  to  seven 
days,  according  to  the  state  of  the  river,  to  accomplish 
the  journey  in  canoes.  While  the  coolies  were  still 
comparatively  fresh,  we  sometimes  sent  off  as  many 
as  six  canoes  at  a  time  from  Wakatimi  to  Parimau, 
but  with  sickness  and  fatigue  their  numbers  quickly 
diminished  and  two  or  three  canoes  laden  with  stores, 
accompanied  by  one  "  escort "  canoe  manned  by 
Javanese  soldiers  and  convicts,  was  the  size  of  the 
usual  river  "  transport."  The  larger  canoes  were  paddled 
by  five  or  six  and  the  smaller  by  four  men  ;  the  average 
load  carried  by  one  canoe  was  about  eight  hundred 
pounds'  weight,  of  which  a  considerable  amount  was 
consumed  on  the  journey.     The  men   were  given  one 


THE   MIMIKA   RIVER  71 

day's  rest  at   Parimaii,   they  came  down  the  river  in 
two  da^^s  and  rested  for  two  days  at  Wakatimi  before 
starting  up  the  river  again.     One   of  us   accompanied 
them  on  nearly  every  journey  with  a  view  to  preventing 
the  men  from  hngering  too   many  days  on   the  voyage 
and  partly  as  a  protection  from  the  natives,  who  paid 
great  respect  to  us  but  were  inclined  to  behave  rudely  to 
the  coolies,  if  they  were  not  accompanied  by  an  European. 
Those  days  of  canoeing  up  the  Mimika  River  were 
some  of  the  most  monotonous  of  my  life  and  I  shall 
never    forget    them.     For    the    first    few    miles    above 
Wakatimi  the  river  is  about  as  wide  as  the  Thames 
at  Windsor,  the  banks  are  covered  with  smallish  trees 
with  here  and  there  clumps  of  palm  trees,  from  which 
fresh  young  coconuts  may  be  gathered.     Occasionally 
the  rising  tide  helps  you  on  your  way,  and  if  you  are 
particularly   fortunate   you   may   even   see   at   the   end 
of  a  straight  reach  of  the  river  a  glimpse  of  the  distant 
mountains.     But  very  soon  the  river  narrows   to  half 
its  width,  the  huge  trees  of  the   regular    New  Guinea 
jungle  shut  out  all  except  a  narrow  strip  of  sky,  and 
the  river  twists  and  meanders  towards  all  the  points 
of  the  compass,  until  you  w^onder  whether  it  will  not 
eventually  bring  you   back   to   the   point   whence   you 
started.     There  was  one  bend  of  the  river  which  was 
particularly  remarkable  ;    it  made  an  almost  complete 
circle  of  about  a  mile  and  a  half  in  circumference,  ending 
at   a  point   exactly  forty  yards  distant  from  its   com- 
mencement, so  that  by  landing  and  walking  across  a 
narrow  neck  you  could  \\ait  for  more  than  half  an  hour 
for  the  canoes  to  overtake  you. 


72  PYGMIES  AND   PAPUANS 

The  rate  of  travel  varied  with  the  efficiency  of  the 
cooHes  and  according  to  the  strength  of  the  current 
in  the  river,  which  was  sometimes  very  sluggish,  and 
at  other  times  came  swirling  down  at  three  or  four 
miles  an  hour.  We  cleared  camping  places  at  various 
points  along  the  river,  and,  if  the  pace  was  good,  the 
average  stage  was  about  six  hours,  though  it  often 
took  ten  or  even  twelve  hours  when  the  river  was  in 
flood.  The  pleasantest  camping  places  were  on  mud- 
banks,  where  the  coolies  could  bathe  and  pitch  their 
tents  without  trouble,  but  they  were  very  liable  to  be 
flooded  by  a  sudden  rise  of  the  river  during  the  night, 
and  we  generally  had  our  own  tents  pitched  on  a  space 
cleared  in  the  jungle  at  the  top  of  a  steep  bank. 

It  will  be  convenient  to  describe  a  da^^'s  voj^age 
up  the  Mimika  by  taking  an  extract  from  my  diary  : — 
"  May  13.  The  monotony  of  the  river  is  beyond 
"  words,  and  one  day  is  almost  exactly  like  another. 
"  I  get  up  at  six  o'clock  and  breakfast  off  cocoa 
"  and  biscuits  and  butter,  whilst  the  camp  is  coming 
"  down,  i.e.  tents,  etc.,  being  packed.  Spend  the 
"  next  hour  or  rather  more  in  hurrying  on  the 
"  coolies  with  their  food,  which  they  ought  always 
"  to  begin  to  cook  half  an  hour  earlier  than  they 
"  do.  See  everj'thing  put  into  the  canoes  and 
"  then  start  with  the  last.  After  that  anything 
"  from  five  to  twelve  hours'  sitting  on  a  damp  tent 
*'  with  one's  feet  in  more  or  less  (according  to  the 
"  weather)  water  swishing  from  side  to  side  of 
**  the  canoe.  Sometimes  I  paddle,  but  not  so  much 
*'  now  as  I  did  the  first  time  I  came  up  the  river, 


CANOEING  ^  UP   THE   MIMIKA  73 

'  not  from  laziness  but  because  the  irregular  time 

*  is  so  horribly  irritating.  If  the  coolies  would 
'  only  paddle  lazily  but  regularly  all  would  be 
'  well,  but  they  will  not ;  they  paddle  all  together 
'  furiously  for  perhaps  twenty  or  thirty  strokes 
'  and  then  vary  between  a  haphazard  rag-time 
'  and  doing  nothing  at  all. 

"  Most  of  the  time  I  watch  the  banks  go  by 
'  and  wonder  how  long  it  will  take  us  to  get  to 
•'  the  end  of  this  reach,  which  bears  a  remarkable 
'  resemblance  to  the  last  and  to  the  next.  The 
'  jungle  is  as  ugly  as  it  can  be,  rank  undergrowth, 
'  trailing  rattans  and  scraggy  rotting  trees.  In 
'  forty  miles  I  do  not  think  there  are  half  a  dozen 
'  big  trees  worth  looking  at.  Very  occasionally 
'  you  see  a  flowering  creeper,  one  with  clusters  of 

*  white  flowers  is  here  and  there,  and  I  have  seen 
'  a  few  of  the  gorgeous  flaming  D'Albertis  creeper 
'  (Mtccuna  pmriens).  Butterflies  are  seldom  seen 
'  and  birds  one  hardly  hears  at  all.  The  banks 
'  are  steep  slimy  brown  mud,  littered  with  the 
'  trunks    and    limbs    of    rotten    trees,    which    also 

*  stick  up  all  over  the  river  like  horrid  muddy 
'  bones. 

"  Altogether  it  is  as  gloomy  and  depressing  as 
'  it  can  be,  there  is  no  view,  not  even  a  glimpse 
'  to  shew  that  we  are  getting  near  a  mountain 
'  range.     In  the  midst  of  all  this  it  generally  rains 

*  hard  and  you  arrive  in  camp  soaking  wet.  Then 
'  see   everything   taken   out   of   the   canoes,    tents 

*  pitched,  canoes  securely  moored,  food  given  out 


74  PYGMIES  AND   PAPUANS 

"  to  the  coolies,  and  by  that  time  it  is  well  on  into 

"  the    afternoon.     Wet    wood    is   somehow    coaxed 

"  into  boiling  a  kettle  and  I  get  a  cup  of  tea,  very 

"  good.     At  six  o'clock  the  meal  of  the  day,  rice 

"  or  a  tin,  but  one  eats  very  little  on  these  journeys. 

"  After  dinner  a  book  and  tobacco  and  to  bed  about 

"  nine    o'clock,    or    earlier    if    the    mosquitoes    are 

"  troublesome.     It    does    not    compare    favourably 

"  with  being  '  on  safari '  in  Africa,  and  I  frequently 

"  wish  myself  back  on  one  of  those  interminable 

"  roads  which  I  have  so  often  cursed." 

But  it  must  not  be  supposed  that  there  were  not 

occasional    pleasant    moments,   which   to   some   extent 

were   compensation   for   the   monotony   of   those   days. 

Sometimes  you  saw  a  Crowned  Pigeon  (Gotira  sclateri) 

by  the  water's  edge,  and  by  paddling  quietly  you  could 

approach  within  a  few  yards  before  it  flew  lazily  across 

the  river  and  alighted  on  a  low  branch.     The  Crowned 

Pigeon  is  one  of  the  handsomest  of  New  Guinea  birds  ; 

it  is  as  big  as  a  large  domestic  fowl,  of  an  uniform  mauve 

grey  colour  with  a  large  white  patch  on  the  wings,  and 

on  its  head  is  a  crest  of  delicate  grey  plumes,  which  it 

opens  and  shuts  like  a  fan.     These  birds  feed  mostly 

on  fruits,  but  they  also  eat  small  molluscs  and  crabs, 

which  they  pick  up  on  the  river  bank.     As  they  were 

almost  the  only  eatable  birds  in  the  country,  we  killed 

a  good  many  of  them,  but  their  numbers  appeared  to 

be  in  no  way  diminished  when  we  left  the  country  ; 

the  flesh  is  white  and  excessively  dry. 

The  little  red   King  Bird  of   Paradise    [Cicinmirus 
regiiis)  is  heard  calling  everywhere,  and  from  the  upper 


]    A" 


^ 


A    PAPUAN    OF    MIMIKA    WITH    CLOSELY    PLAITED    HAIR. 


BIRDS  75 

waters  of  the  river  j^ou  hear  the  harsh  cry  of  the  Greater 
Bird  of  Paradise  {Paradisea  novae  guineae),  but  both 
of  these  are  birds  of  the  dense  forest  and  I  do  not 
remember  ever  having  seen  one  from  the  river. 

Green  and  red  Eclcctus  Parrots  (Elcdiis  pedoralis) 
and  white  Lemon-crested  Cockatoos  are  fairly  numerous 
and  their  harsh  screams,  though  sufficiently  unpleas- 
ing  are  a  welcome  interruption  of  the  prevailing 
silence. 

Lories  were  not  often  seen  on  the  river  journeys, 
but  they  were  extremely  common  near  Wakatimi,  where 
a  certain  clump  of  trees  was  used  by  them  as  a  regular 
roosting-place.  For  an  hour  or  more  before  sunset 
countless  hundreds  of  Lories  (Eos  fuscata)  flew  in  flocks 
from  all  directions  towards  the  roosting-trees,  chatter- 
ing loudly  as  they  flew  and  even  louder  after  they  had 
perched.  Often  a  branch  would  give  way  under  the 
living  weight  and  then  the  whole  throng  would  rise 
in  the  air  again  and  circle  round  and  round  before  they 
alighted  once  more  and  the  shouting  and  chattering 
continued  until  it  was  dark. 

Crocodiles  were  very  seldom  seen,  but  Iguanas  of 
two  or  three  feet  in  length  w^ere  often  seen  sunning 
themselves  on  a  log  or  a  stump,  from  which  they  would 
splash  hurriedly  into  the  water  as  the  canoes  approached. 
Several  times  at  night  I  heard  a  splash  as  loud  as  the 
plunge  of  a  man  into  water,  but  I  could  never  discover 
what  was  the  animal  that  caused  it ;  there  may  yet 
possibly  be  some  large  unknown  reptile  in  the  river. 
Snakes  were  sometimes  seen  curled  up  in  the  over- 
hanging   vegetation    and    very    commonly    they    were 


76  PYGMIES  AND  PAPUANS 

found  swimming  in  the  water  ;  one  day  I  counted  eleven 
small  harmless  snakes  swimming  within  half  a  mile  of 
the  same  place. 

On  many  days  during  the  months  of  May  and  June 
the  river  swarmed  with  large  bright  yellow  flies  very 
similar  to,  but  about  twice  the  size  of,  the  Green  Drake 
of  the  fly-fisher.  They  hatched  out  about  mid-day 
and  took  longer  or  shorter  flights  over  the  water,  rising 
from  it  and  alighting  again  like  miniature  aeroplanes. 
Many  of  them  fell  a  prey  to  swallows  and  bee-eaters 
and  other  insect-eating  birds,  while  the  rest  were  quickly 
drowned,  and  I  have  seen  long  stretches  of  the  river 
completely  covered  by  the  dead  insects. 

At  some  of  the  camps  on  the  river  and  elsewhere 
we  were  a  good  deal  bothered  by  small  bees,  the  Sting- 
less  Honey-bee  (Melipona  praeterita).  These  annoying 
little  creatures — they  are  about  half  the  size  of  the 
common  house-fly — buzzed  about  you  in  swarms  and 
strove  most  persistently  to  settle  on  any  exposed  part 
of  your  body  in  pursuit  of  the  sweat,  which  is  never 
absent  from  you  in  those  places.  No  matter  how  you 
beat  about  and  killed  them  they  wxre  back  again  im- 
mediately and  once,  while  writing,  I  kept  my  hands 
quite  still  on  the  book  and  in  a  few  moments  I  counted 
forty-six  on  my  two  hands  before  their  crawling  became 
unbearable.  They  have  a  disagreeably  sticky  feeling 
as  they  crawl  over  you  and  your  hands,  when  you  have 
squashed  a  number  of  them,  become  sticky  too. 

At  night,  when  the  rain  was  not  drumming  cease- 
lessly on  the  roof  of  the  tent,  the  silence  was  broken 
now  and  then  by  the  grating  call  of  a  Brush  Turkey 


NIGHT    ON    THE    RIVER  77 

{Talegallus  /uscirostris)  *  ;  or  a  flock  of  Pale  Crows 
{Gymnocorax  senex),  which  are  curiously  nocturnal  in 
their  habits,  would  fly  over  the  camp  cawing  like  muflled 
rooks.  Lizards  and  frogs  uttered  all  sorts  of  strange 
cries  and  whistles,  and  the  mournful  unbirdlike  note 
of  the  Frogmouth  {Podargus  papuensis)  was  heard  on 
every  side. 

Sometimes,  even  when  there  was  no  wind  stirring, 
you  would  hear  at  night  a  noise  like  thunder  as  some 
great  tree  went  crashing  down.  Most  of  the  trees  in 
the  jungle  do  not  attain  a  very  great  girth,  but  they 
grow  up  very  rapidly  to  reach  the  light  and  in  their 
upper  branches  there  is  soon  accumulated  a  dense  mass 
of  climbers  and  parasitic  plants,  which  in  the  course 
of  time  become  too  heavy  for  the  tree  and  cause  it 
to  collapse.  The  floor  of  the  jungle  is  strewn  with  the 
limbs  and  trunks  of  fallen  trees  and  the  smell  of  rotting 
w^ood  is  everywiiere. 

The  last,  usually  the  fifth,  day  of  the  journey  up 
the  river  was  always  pleasant,  partly  because  one  knew 
that  there  were  only  a  few  more  hours  of  the  tedious 
voyage,  and  partly  because  the  scenery  was  beginning 
to  change.  Beautiful  Tree-ferns  appeared  upon  the 
banks  and  the  soil,  firmer  than  in  the  swampy  lands 
near  the  coast,  supported  trees  of  finer  growth.  Scattered 
pebbles  and  then  banks  of  clean  sand  and  shingle  began 

*  Like  the  Megapodes  the  Brush  Turkeys  are  most  interesting 
birds,  which  have  the  habit  of  making  large  mounds  of  rubbish  in 
which  they  place  their  eggs,  where  they  are  hatched  by  the  heat  of 
fermentation.  This  species  is  about  the  size  of  a  domestic  hen,  and 
its  large  brown  egg  is  very  good  eating. 


78  PYGMIES  AND   PAPUANS 

to  take  the  place  of  the  hideous  mud  of  the  lower  river, 
and  after  spending,  as  frequently  happened,  many 
weeks  at  Wakatimi,  where  the  smallest  pebble  would 
have  been  an  object  of  wonder,  it  was  a  peculiar  pleasure 
to  feel  the  grit  of  stones  under  your  feet  again.  At 
the  same  time  the  cocoa-brown  water  became  clear 
and  sparkling  and  one  drank  it  for  the  very  pleasure 
of  drinking.  Going  further  we  came  to  rapids,  where 
the  river  ran  over  stones,  or  piled-up  barriers  of  faUen 
trees.  Passages  were  cut  through  many  of  these 
obstacles,  but  every  succeeding  flood  brought  down 
more  trees  and  new  barriers  were  formed. 

When  the  river  was  low,  the  last  four  miles  to 
Parimau  were  covered  by  wading  and  hauling  the  canoes 
over  or  under  the  great  logs.  Every  man  had  to  get 
out  of  the  canoe  and  do  his  share  of  the  work,  and 
sometimes  we  had  to  take  the  cargo  out  as  well,  when 
the  canoe  had  to  be  dragged  over  a  particularly  high 
obstacle.  When  the  river  was  in  flood,  the  last  day's 
journey  was  the  most  arduous  of  all,  and  it  sometimes 
took  twelve  or  fourteen  hours'  hard  labour  to  accom- 
plish it.  The  water  was  then  too  deep  for  pohng,  and 
the  current  was  so  swift  that  vigorous  paddling  hardly 
did  more  than  prevent  the  canoe  from  following  the 
stream,  and  it  was  only  by  dodging  from  one  side  of 
the  river  to  the  other  and  by  hauling  on  overhanging 
branches  that  progress  was  made. 

Considering  the  want  of  skill  of  the  coolies  and 
the  great  number  of  journeys  that  were  made  up  and 
down  the  river,  it  was  wonderful  that  no  accidents  of 
any    consequence    occurred.     It    is    true    that    a    good 


\, 


u 


.s- ..  „  ''l 


IIeau-dresses  made  of  plaited  fibres,  worn  at  festivals  and 
ceremonies.     i.  is  ornamented  with  tufts  of  i'lumes  of  the 
Greater  Bird  ok  Paradise. 


THE    LONG   WET   SEASON  79 

many  canoes  capsized — I  think  all  of  us  had  at  least 
one  involuntary  ducking — but  a  well-laden  canoe  is 
comparatively  steady,  and  most  of  the  upsets  hap- 
pened to  empty  canoes  going  down  the  river  and  nothing 
was  lost  but  coolies'  scanty  baggage,  which  was 
easily  replaced.  The  Javanese  coolies  of  the  escort, 
who  were  even  less  skilled  watermen  than  ours,  suffered 
rather  more  accidents,  but  one  boat-load  of  provisions 
and  two  rifles  were  the  total  of  their  losses. 

There  w^re  periods,  lasting  for  several  weeks,  when 
the  river  was  almost  continuall}^  in  flood,  and  there 
were  other,  but  always  shorter,  periods  when  the 
river  was  low  ;  but  though  we  spent  fifteen  months  in 
New  Guinea  the  time  was  not  long  enough  to  determine 
at  all  accurately  the  limits  of  the  seasons,  for  the  first 
three  months  of  191 1  differed  considerably  from  the 
corresponding  months  of  the  previous  year.  Speaking 
generally,  it  may  be  said  of  the  Mimika  district  that 
the  weather  from  mid-October  to  the  middle  of  April  is 
finer  than  the  weather  from  the  middle  of  April  to  the 
middle  of  October.  These  two  periods  correspond  more 
or  less  with  the  monsoons,  but  it  is  notable  that  whereas 
in  British  New  Guinea  the  period  of  the  Eastern  mon- 
soon. May  to  November,  is  the  drier,  here  the  reverse 
is  the  case.  The  finest  weather  appears  to  be  in 
November  and  December,  and  the  wettest  weather 
is  in  July,  August  and  September.  The  terms  "  fine  " 
and  "  wet  "  are  used  only  relatively,  for  it  is  almost 
always  wet.  In  the  first  twelve  months  of  our  stay 
rain  fell  on  three  hundred  and  thirty  days.  It  was 
very   unfortunate   that   we   did   not   provide   ourselves 


^ 


8o  PYGMIES  AND  PAPUANS 

with  rain-gauges  for  use  at  Wakatimi  and  Parimau, 
where  interesting  observations  might  have  been  recorded 
for  a  year  or  more.  A  roughly  constructed  rain-gauge, 
which  was  used  for  a  short  time,  more  than  once  re- 
corded a  fall  of  over  six  inches  of  rain  in  one  night, 
and  that  was  in  the  comparatively  dry  season  of  March. 

A  great  deal  of  the  rain  fell  in  thunderstorms. 
From  January  4th,  1910,  to  January  4th,  191 1,  I  heard 
thunder  on  two  hundred  and  ninety-five  days,  not 
including  days  on  which  I  saw  distant  lightning  but  did 
not  hear  the  thunder. 

Before  we  left  England  it  was  thought  that  the 
party  ought  to  include  a  geologist,  but  it  was  impossible 
to  add  to  our  numbers,  which  were  already  sufficiently 
great.  As  it  fell  out,  we  hardly  reached  geological 
country  at  all  and  a  geologist  would  have  spent  an  idle 
time,  but  there  would  have  been  plenty  of  occupation 
for  a  well  equipped  hydrologist. 

The  winds,  whether  from  the  East  or  from  the  West, 
were  very  variable  both  in  force  and  constancy.  Some- 
times there  would  blow  a  fierce  wind  for  two  or  three 
days  followed  by  several  days  of  calm.  At  other  times 
a  steady  wind  would  blow  for  two  or  three  weeks  and 
so  great  would  be  the  surf  on  the  sea-shore  that  no 
ship  could  approach  the  mouth  of  the  river.  The 
wind  usually  dropped  before  sunset  and  the  nights  were 
calm. 

It  followed  naturally  from  the  heavy  rainfall  that 
the  nights  were  seldom  clear,  and  at  one  time  Marshall 
waited  for  three  months  before  he  could  take  an  obser- 
vation from  a  star.     But  there  were  times  even  in  the 


HALLEY'S  COMET  8i 

wet  weather,  when  the  rain  poured  down  during  the 
day  and  at  night  the  heavens  were  clear.  One  of  these 
times  fortunately  occurred  in  May,  when  Halley's  Comet 
was  approaching  the  Earth.  On  May  9th  the  comet, 
looking  like  a  muffled  star,  was  seen  in  the  East  and  its 
tail,  a  broad  beam  of  brilliant  light,  extended  upwards 
through  about  thirty  degrees.  Below  the  comet  and 
a  little  to  the  South  of  it  Venus  shone  like  a  little  moon, 
appearing  far  bigger  than  any  planet  I  have  ever  seen. 
The  comet  grew  enormously  and  in  the  early  morning 
of  May  14th,  the  last  time  that  we  saw  it  completely 
before  it  had  passed  the  Earth,  the  tail  blazed  across 
the  heavens  like  an  immense  search-light  beam  to  the 
zenith  and  beyond.  On  May  26th  it  appeared  again 
in  the  evening,  reduced  in  size  to  about  forty-five 
degrees,  and  several  nights  we  watched  it  growing  always 
smaller,  until  it  vanished  from  our  sight.  Superlative 
expressions  will  not  describe  Halley's  Comet  as  we 
saw  it  in  New  Guinea  ;  it  was  a  wonderful  appearance 
and  one  never  to  be  forgotten.  Our  coolies  and  the 
Javanese  declared  that  it  portended  much  sickness 
and  death.  Though  we  tried  to  question  them  about 
it,  we  never  learnt  how  it  impressed  the  minds  of  the 
natives. 


CHAPTER  VII 

Exploration  of  the  Kapare  River — Ohota — Native  Geography — River 
Obstructions — Hornbills  and  Tree  Ducks — Gifts  of  Stones — Im- 
portance of  Steam  Launch — Ctdtivation  of  Tobacco — Sago  Swamps 
— Manufacture  of  Sago — Cooking  of  Sago — The  Dutch  Use  of 
Convict  Labour. 

Towards  the  end  of  January  Capt.  Rawling,  who  had 
gone  up  the  Mimika  River  with  the  first  party  to  Parimau, 
made  an  excursion  to  the  N.W.  of  that  place,  and  at 
a  distance  of  about  four  miles  he  came  to  a  river,  which 
we  afterwards  learnt  to  know  as  the  Kapare,  of  much 
greater  volume  than  the  Mimika,  and  therefore  likely  to 
spring  from  mountains  much  higher  than  those  that  gave 
rise  to  the  Mimika.  Had  we  known  at  the  time  that 
our  real  objective,  the  highest  mountains  of  the  range, 
lay  far  to  the  N.E.,  we  should  have  neglected  the  Kapare 
River,  and  by  so  doing  we  should  have  spared  ourselves 
many  weeks  of  labour  ;  but  at  the  same  time  we  should 
have  missed  seeing  a  wide  area  of  unknown  country, 
and  we  might  possibly  have  failed  to  make  the  discovery 
of  the  pygmy  tribe,  who  inhabit  the  hilly  country  between 
the  Kapare  and  the  upper  waters  of  the  Mimika  River. 

It  appeared  that  the  Kapare  might  offer  a  better 
route  to  the  higher  mountains  than  the  Mimika,  so  it 
was  decided  that  we  should  explore  its  lower  waters 
and  see  whether  it  was  possible  to  reach  it  from  our  base- 
camp.      Accordingly  on    February  14th  Lieut.  Cramer, 


VISIT  TO  OBOTA  83 

Marshall  and  I  set  out  in  three  canoes,  taking  with  us 
provisions  sufficient  for  a  week's  journey.  Two  miles 
below  Wakatimi  we  entered  and  began  to  ascend  the 
Watuka  River,  of  which,  as  has  been  noted  above  (p.  40), 
the  Mimika  is  but  a  tributary.  After  proceeding  a  mile 
or  two  up  the  Watuka  we  came  to  another  junction 
of  two  rivers,  and  for  the  first  time  we  began  to  realise 
the  extraordinary  network  of  waterways,  which  traverse 
the  low-lying  lands  of  that  part  of  New  Guinea.  We 
learnt  afterwards  that  there  are  inland  channels  joining 
several  of  the  rivers  to  the  East  of  the  Mimika  in  such  a 
way  that  it  is  possible  to  travel  by  water  from  Wakatimi 
to  villages  far  distant  along  the  coast  without  going  by 
sea,  and  no  doubt  the  same  is  true  in  a  Westerly  direction. 

The  junction  we  had  then  reached  was  formed  by  a 
wide  river  coming,  apparently,  from  due  North  and  a 
much  smaller  branch,  not  more  than  ten  yards  wide, 
but  deep  and  swift,  joining  it  from  the  West.  It  appeared 
to  be  quite  certain  that  the  river  we  were  in  search  of 
must  be  the  Northern  branch,  and  we  should  have 
followed  it  at  once  had  not  a  number  of  natives  appeared 
on  the  bank,  and  asked  us  to  go  and  visit  their  village, 
which,  they  explained,  was  a  short  distance  up  the 
Western  branch. 

We  soon  reached  Obota,  as  the  village  was  called,  a 
collection  of  about  one  hundred  huts  on  both  banks 
of  the  narrow  river,  and  there  we  were  accorded  the 
usual  welcome  by  a  large  crowd  of  people.  As  it  was  still 
early  in  the  day  we  were  anxious  to  continue  our  journey, 
and  we  proposed  to  go  up  the  Northern  branch,  but  the 
natives  assured  us  that  that  led  to  nowhere  and  broke 


84  PYGMIES  AND   PAPUANS 

up  into  branches  in  the  jungle,  while  the  small  stream 
which  flowed  through  the  village  was  the  river  flowing 
directly  from  the  mountains. 

It  should  be  explained  that  this  information  was 
conveyed  to  us  partly  by  long  speeches  of  which  we 
understood  little  or  nothing,  but  chiefly  by  means  of 
maps  drawn  on  the  ground.  Some  of  the  men  drew 
their  rivers  crossing  one  another  in  a  rather  improbable 
manner,  but  many  of  them  drew  charts  very  intelligently, 
and  at  different  times  we  obtained  from  the  natives  a 
good  deal  of  geographical  information  which  was  sub- 
stantially correct.  On  this  occasion  their  maps  all 
agreed  in  tracing  the  big  river  to  branches  in  the  jungle, 
and  the  small  river  to  the  mountains,  so  we  were  rather 
reluctantly  persuaded  that  they  were  right,  and  we 
tried  to  induce  some  of  them  to  go  with  us.  Many  of 
them  offered  to  go  the  next  day,  but  not  one  would 
start  then — it  was  too  late,  it  was  going  to  rain,  they 
had  not  eaten,  and  many  other  excuses — so  we  got 
into  our  canoes  and  attempted  to  paddle  up  the  stream 
and  found,  what  the  natives  doubtless  knew,  that  we 
could  not  advance  at  all.  Several  times  we  tried,  but 
were  always  driven  back  by  the  strong  current,  to  the 
great  delight  of  the  natives  who  lined  the  banks  and 
laughed  at  our  feeble  efforts,  so  there  was  nothing  for 
it  but  to  make  a  camp  near  the  village  and  wait  till  the 
next  day. 

There  was  some  difficulty  about  inducing  the  men 
to  start  in  the  morning,  for  it  was  raining,  and,  like 
other  naked  peoples,  the  Papuans  dislike  being  wetted 
by  rain,  but  we  got  off   eventually  with    two    natives, 


RIVER  OBSTACLES  85 

one  at  the  bow  and  one  at  the  stern,  in  each  canoe,  in 
addition  to  the  crews  of  four  Javanese  soldiers  and  con- 
victs. It  was  soon  evident  that  without  the  help  of  the 
natives  we  could  not  possibly  have  ascended  the  river. 
For  a  mile  or  two  above  Obota  the  water  ran  like  a  mill- 
race  in  a  very  narrow  channel  full  of  rocks  and  sunken 
trees,  and  it  was  only  by  the  most  skilful  poling  and, 
when  a  chance  occurred,  by  hauling  the  canoes  along 
a  side  channel  that  we  were  able  to  proceed.  When 
we  returned  a  few  days  later,  we  skimmed  in  fifteen 
minutes  down  the  rapids  which  we  had  taken  more  than 
three  hours  to  ascend. 

Above  the  rapids  the  river  widened  to  about  forty 
yards  and  the  strength  of  the  current  was  proportion- 
ately less,  but  in  a  few  miles  we  met  with  another 
difficulty.  At  a  sharp  bend  of  the  river  the  whole 
channel  was  blocked  by  an  enormous  barrier  of  huge 
trunks  and  limbs  of  trees  piled  high  upon  each  other 
and  wedged  below  into  a  solid  mass.  For  larger  boats 
this  might  have  meant  a  delay  of  many  days  spent  in 
cutting  a  channel,  but  the  dug-out  canoe  is  narrow  and, 
if  not  flexible,  it  can  be  squeezed  through  the  most 
unlikely  openings,  so  that  we  passed  the  barrier  without 
the  loss  of  many  hours. 

When  we  started  from  Obota  we  had  been  doubtful 
whether  it  was  possible  that  so  small  a  river  could 
possibly  come  from  the  mountains  ;  but  a  little  way 
above  the  barrier  of  logs  our  doubts  were  set  at  rest, 
when  we  found  that  our  river  was  a  mere  off-shoot 
from  another  more  than  twice  its  volume,  which  flowed 
down  to  the  sea  at  a  village  called  Periepia.     The  main 


86  PYGMIES  AND   PAPUANS 

river,  the  Kapare,  where  we  joined  it,  was  more  than  a 
hundred  yards  wide,  and  in  the  next  two  days'  journey 
it  hardly  diminished  at  all  in  size.  The  character  of 
the  river  differed  markedly  from  that  of  the  Mimika  ; 
its  bed  was  of  sand,  denoting  its  mountain  origin,  in 
contrast  to  the  brown  mud  of  the  Mimika  and  other 
jungle  rivers,  and  its  course  was  a  procession  of  magni- 
ficent bends,  quite  unlike  the  paltry  windings  of  the 
Mimika. 

Paddling  slowly  up  the  river  we  disturbed  com- 
panies of  Hornbills  (Rhytidoceros  plicatiis)  which  were 
feeding  at  the  tops  of  the  trees.  These  peculiarly  hideous 
birds  bark  like  dogs,  and  the  loud  "  swishing  "  of  their 
wings,  as  they  slowly  take  flight,  has  been  likened  (not 
inaptly)  to  the  starting  puffs  of  a  railway  train.  On 
this  and  on  the  other  rivers  we  were  often  pleasantly 
reminded  of  home  by  the  note  of  the  Common  Sandpiper 
(Totaniis  hypoleiims)  which  seemed  to  be  quite  as  much 
at  home  in  New  Guinea  as  in  its  northern  haunts.  The 
last  of  these  were  seen  in  early  April,  and  they  began  to 
reappear  before  the  end  of  July.  Very  interesting  birds, 
of  which  we  saw  a  great  number  on  this  river,  are  the 
black  and  white  Tree  Ducks  (Tadorna  radjah).  They 
have  the  curious  habit  of  perching  very  cleverly  on  the 
topmost  branches  of  the  trees,  and  they  make  a  pretty 
whistling  by  night. 

There  were  no  signs  of  human  habitation  along  the 
banks,  until  on  the  third  day  we  came  to  a  small  village 
of  a  dozen  huts,  in  the  middle  of  which  was  a  tall  house 
built  of  bamboos,  used  for  ceremonials  and  dancing. 
The  few  people  inhabiting  the  place  were  of  a  very  low 


s     OF    THE    KAPARE     Kl 


THE  FIRST   PEBBLES  87 

order  of  intelligence,  if  one  may  judge  from  the  apathy 
with  which  they  received  us  and  saw  us  go  on  our  way. 

As  we  proceeded  further,  on  the  fourth  day  the  river 
became  a  good  deal  smaller,  having  derived  several 
tributaries  from  the  low  hills  which  were  by  that  time 
not  far  distant  on  the  right  bank,  and  as  the  current 
became  increasingly  swifter  it  was  evident  that  the 
Kapare  did  not  promise  a  better  means  of  approach  by 
water  to  the  mountains  than  the  Mimika, 

We  were  rather  amused,  when  we  came  to  the  first 
bank  of  shingle,  by  the  natives  who  were  with  us  bringing 
us  gifts  of  stones,  as  though  they  were  something  new 
and  rare  :  probably  they  thought  that  as  we  came,  for 
all  they  knew,  from  the  sea,  we  had  never  seen  such 
things  before. 

On  the  fifth  day  we  left  the  baggage  behind  and  went 
on  in  one  unladen  canoe,  hoping  to  reach  the  point 
where  Rawling  had  met  the  Kapare  River  by  walking 
overland  from  the  Mimika,  but  we  were  stopped  a  few 
miles  short  of  that  place  by  heavy  rapids,  which 
effectuaUy  prevented  any  further  investigation  of  the 
river. 

The  excursion  up  the  Kapare  was  a  further  illus- 
tration, if  one  had  been  needed,  of  the  futility  of  under- 
taking an  expedition  in  that  country  without  a  steam 
launch  or  motor-boat.  When  it  was  found  that  the 
Mimika  was  only  an  insignificant  river,  which  the  first 
excursion  up  it  would  have  shown,  the  Kapare  River 
might  have  been  explored  from  Periepia,  a  matter 
which  could  have  been  done  in  two  days  instead  of  the 
seven  occupied  by  the  journey  in  canoes,  and  after  that 


88  PYGMIES  AND  PAPUANS 

other  rivers  to  the  East  might  have  been  explored  until 
one  convenient  for  approaching  the  mountains  had  been 
found. 

After  spending  a  night  on  a  sand  bank  from  which 
we  were  very  nearly  washed  away  by  a  sudden  flood, 
we  paddled  leisurely  down  the  river  and  came  in  one 
day  again  to  Obota.  Though  the  two  places  are  so  close 
together  and  communication  between  them  is  very  fre- 
quent, the  inhabitants  of  Obota  are  a  much  better  lot  of 
people  than  those  of  Wakatimi.  The  Obota  men,  who 
came  up  the  river  with  us,  worked  steadily  for  several 
days,  a  thing  we  never  could  persuade  the  Wakatimi 
men  to  do,  and,  a  more  striking  sign  of  their  superiority, 
the  Obota  people  cultivate  the  soil,  whereas  the  Wakatimi 
people  never  do  anything  of  the  kind. 

Many  acres  of  ground  on  both  sides  of  the  river  were 
cleared  of  bush  and  planted  with  bananas  and  sweet 
potatoes  ;  we  never  succeeded  in  obtaining  any  of  the 
latter,  but  bananas  were  brought  for  us  to  buy  and  in 
the  circumstances  they  seemed  to  us  to  be  excellent. 
The  most  extensive  crop  cultivated  at  Obota  is  tobacco  ; 
they  plant  out  the  seedlings  and  shelter  them  with  a 
low  roof  of  bent  sticks  covered  with  leaves,  until  the 
young  plants  are  strong  enough  to  bear  the  full  force  of 
the  sun  and  rain.  Almost  every  native  smokes,  men  and 
women,  and  very  often  the  children.  A  small  handful 
of  the  dried  leaves  is  taken  and  very  carefully  rolled 
up  in  the  form  of  a  cigar,  and  then  wrapped  round  with 
a  sirih  leaf,  which  has  been  previously  warmed  over  the 
fire ;  the  ends  are  bitten  square,  and  sometimes  the 
leaf  is  tied  round  the  middle  with  a  thread  of  fibre  to 


TOBACCO  89 

prevent  its  unrolling.  The  tobacco  is  strong  in  flavour, 
but  not  at  all  unpleasant  to  smoke.  The  only  other 
place,  except  among  the  pygmy  people  of  the  hills, 
where  we  found  cultivation  was  up  the  Keaukwa  River, 
a  few  miles  to  the  E.  of  the  Mimika  River. 

The  distribution  of  tobacco  in  New  Guinea  is  rather 
a  puzzling  question.  There  are  many  places  on  the 
coast  where  its  use  was  unknown  until  quite  recently, 
while  at  the  same  time  the  mountain  people,  for  example, 
in  the  Arfak  Mountains  and  on  the  upper  reaches  of 
the  Fly  and  Kaiserin  Augusta  Rivers,  have  been  accus- 
tomed to  cultivate  it  and  to  barter  it  with  their  neigh- 
bours in  the  lowlands.  The  Tapiro  pygmy  people, 
who  live  in  the  mountains,  cultivate  tobacco  and  exchange 
it  with  the  Papuans  of  the  upper  Mimika  who  grow 
none  themselves.  These  facts  have  led  some  people 
to  suppose  that  the  tobacco  plant  is  indigenous  in  New 
Guinea. 

The  people  of  Obota  were  rich  in  worldly  possessions,  ^ 
for  as  we  walked  through  the  village  we  saw  two  Chinese 
brass  gongs  and  a  large  porcelain  pot,  which  they  told 
us  came  from  "  Tarete."  It  may  be  that  at  some  time 
a  Malay  or  Arab  trader  from  Ternate  came  over  to  this 
part  of  the  coast,  but  it  is  impossible  to  know  ;  perhaps 
the  things  had  been  stolen  and  exchanged  from  one 
village  to  another,  from  the  West  end  of  the  island, 
which  is  often  visited  by  Ternate  traders. 

But  the  chief  reason  for  the  prosperity  of  Obota  is 
the  fact  that  it  lies  at  the  edge  of  an  extensive  sago 
swamp,  and  sago  is  the  mainstay  of  the  food  of  the 
Papuans.     Sago  is  made  from  a  palm  (Sagus  rumphii) 


90  PYGMIES  AND  PAPUANS 

which  always  grows  in  wet  places,  generally  in  low  ground 
near  the  sea,  and  it  will  even  grow  where  the  water  is 
brackish.*  The  palm  is  thicker  than  a  man's  body, 
and  its  height  is  about  25  or  30  feet.  The  trunk  is 
covered  with  large  leaves  bearing  long  hard  spines.  A 
mature  tree  produces  a  large  vertical  spike  of  flowers 
and  then  dies.  When  they  wish  to  collect  sago,  the 
natives  cut  down  a  full-grown  palm  and  clear  it  of  its 
leaves  and  leaf-sheaths.  A  wide  strip  of  the  bark  is 
then  cut  off  from  the  side  of  the  tree  which  lies  uppermost 
and  the  sago  is  exposed.  The  bark  of  the  tree  is  really 
nothing  more  than  a  shell  about  an  inch  in  thickness, 
enclosing  the  pith  or  sago,  which  is  a  brownish  pulpy 
substance  separated  by  fibrous  strands.  The  pith  is 
separated  from  the  bark  by  means  of  the  sago-beater, 
which  is  a  sort  of  wooden  hammer  made  in  two  pieces, 
a  handle  about  a  foot  and  a  half  long,  carrying  a  head 
about  twelve  inches  long  ;  the  hitting  face  of  the  head 
is  about  two  inches  in  diameter,  and  it  often  bears  a 
rather  sharp  rim  which  is  useful  in  clearing  the  pith  from 
the  bark. 

When  all  the  pith  has  been  beaten  out  of  the  shell 
of  the  tree  it  is  carried  away  to  the  nearest  water,  where 
the  sago  is  extracted.  A  trough  made  of  two  wide 
basin-like  leaf-bases  of  the  sago  palm  is  set  up  on 
crossed  sticks  about  three  feet  from  the  ground  in  such  a 
way  that  one  basin  is  a  little  higher  than  the  other. 
Lumps  of  the  pith  are  then  kneaded  in  the  upper  part 

*  The  very  interesting  discovery  was  made  by  Mr.  Staniforth 
Smith  of  sago  growing  at  an  altitude  of  3500  feet  in  the  region  of 
Kikor  River,  British  New  Guinea. — Gcog.  Journal,  vol.  xxxix.  p.  329. 


'APUAX     WOMAN     CARRYING     WOODEN     BOW 


SAGO  91 

of  the  trough  with  water  which  is  constantly  poured 
into  it ;  the  water  carries  away  the  sago  into  the  lower 
part  of  the  trough,  and  nothing  remains  above  but  the 
coarse  fibrous  stuff  which  is  thrown  away  ;  the  lower 
trough  gradually  becomes  filled  with  sago  and  tlie 
water  flows  away.  The  sago,  a  dirty  white  substance 
with  a  rather  sour  smell,  is  made  into  cylindrical  cakes  of 
about  30  lbs.  weight,  and  neatly  wrapped  up  in  leaves 
of  the  palm  to  be  carried  back  to  the  village.  Most 
of  the  work  of  collecting  and  preparing  the  sago  is  done 
by  the  women. 

According  to  Mr.  Wallace,  one  fair-sized  sago  palm 
will  supply  one  man  with  food  for  a  year,  so  it  will  be 
seen  that  the  amount  of  labour  required  to  feed  a 
community  in  a  district  where  sago  is  plentiful  is  not 
very  overwhelming. 

The  usual  method  of  cooking  employed  by  the 
Papuans  is  to  roll  the  sago  into  lumps  about  the  size 
of  a  cricket  ball  and  roast  them  in  the  embers  of  a  fire. 
On  one  or  two  occasions  I  saw  them  prepare  it  in  a 
different  way,  which  was  to  wrap  up  the  sago  in 
banana  leaves  and  cook  it  on  hot  stones  ;  the  result 
was  probably  more  w^holesome  food  than  the  charred 
lumps  that  they  usually  eat. 

Very  often  the  natives  of  the  Mimika  eat  the  crude 
sago,  that  is  to  say,  the  pith  simply  as  it  is  cut  out  of 
the  tree,  without  having  been  washed  or  pounded.  The 
stuff  is  roasted  in  the  usual  way  and  the  separation 
of  the  sago  is  done  in  the  mouth  of  the  eater,  who 
spits  out  the  uneatable  fibre. 

As  well  as  providing  the  Papuans  with  the  bulk  of 


93  PYGMIES  AND   PAPUANS 

their  food,  the  sago  palm  supphes  them  with  excel- 
lent building  poles  in  the  mid-ribs  of  the  leaves,  which 
are  straight  and  very  strong,  and  are  sometimes  fifteen 
to  twenty  feet  long,  and  the  leaflets  themselves  are  used 
for  making  "  atap  "  in  the  districts  where  the  Nipa 
palm  is  not  found. 

It  was  mentioned  above  that  the  crews  of  our  canoes 
on  the  excursion  up  the  Kapare  River  were  made  up 
of  Javanese  soldiers  and  convicts.  Our  first  batch  of 
Ambonese  coolies  had  by  that  time  failed  us,  so  Lieut. 
Cramer  very  kindly  lent  us  some  of  his  men  for  the 
occasion,  and  we  had  an  opportunity  of  testing  their 
worth.  Speaking  generally,  it  is  not  unfair  to  them 
to  say  that  the  Javanese  are  wholly  unsuited  to  rough 
work  in  a  savage  country ;  they  are  a  peaceful  race 
of  peasants  and  their  proper  place  is  in  the  rice  fields. 
As  soldiers  they  appear  to  the  civilian  eye  to  be  clod- 
hoppers masquerading  in  (usually  misfitting)  uniform. 
They  have  no  military  bearing  and  no  alertness,  and 
one  ceases  to  wonder  that  when  the  Netherlands  East 
Indian  native  army  is  almost  exclusively  composed 
of  Javanese,  the  war-like  people  of  Atjeh  have  kept 
the  field  for  so  many  years.  It  is  a  matter  for  surprise 
that  the  Dutch  do  not  enlist  more  of  the  warlike  Bugis 
of  Celebes,  and  natives  of  the  Moluccas,  and  even  the 
Achinese  prisoners  themselves  ;  ten  thousand  of  such 
men  would  surely  be  of  more  worth  than  the  30,000 
Javanese  who  fill  the  ranks  of  their  native  army.  Of 
course  there  are  exceptions ;  there  are  men  among 
them  who  have  performed  splendidly  valorous  deeds 
in   time   of  war ;    but   the   majority  are   of   a   stuff   of 


CONVICT   LABOUR  93 

which  it  would  be  impossible  to  make  soldiers,  they 
are  soft  and  unathletic  and  of  a  curiously  feminine 
form  of  body,  as  a  glance  at  a  group  of  bathing 
Javanese  will  show. 

The  Javanese  convicts  were  the  same  sort  of  material, 
but  their  case  was  not  quite  the  same  as  that  of  the 
soldiers,  for  they  had  not  voluntarily  entered  a  pro- 
fession (if  the  condition  of  convict  can  be  called  a 
profession)  that  involved  service  in  foreign  lands.  The 
justice  of  the  Dutch  practice  of  employing  convicts 
as  coolies  in  military  and  exploring  expeditions  is  very 
much  open  to  question,  but  it  need  not  be  discussed 
at  length  here.  The  transport  for  the  military  opera- 
tions in  Atjeh  is  carried  out  almost  entirely  by  convict 
labour,  and  all  the  Dutch  exploring  parties  in  New 
Guinea  have  made  use  of  convict  coohes,  assisted  in 
two  instances  by  paid  Dayaks.  It  is  intended  officially 
that  only  long-sentence  men  shall  go  on  expeditions, 
so  that  by  good  behaviour  they  may  earn  some  sub- 
stantial remission  of  their  sentences,  but  that  is  not 
invariably  the  case,  for  several  young  men  left  our 
expedition  because  their  terms  had  expired.  It  is  also 
supposed  that  only  men  shall  be  sent  on  expeditions 
who  volunteer  to  go  ;  but  the  supply  of  convict  volun- 
teers is  not  inexhaustible,  and  there  were  men  with 
us  whose  last  wish  would  have  been  to  come  to  New 
Guinea. 

But  even  if  they  were  all  volunteers  and  all  long- 
service  men,  it  is  doubtful  whether  it  is  justifiable  to 
send  any  but  free  men  to  work  in  a  country  so  full  of 
risks  as  New  Guinea.     The  native  of  Java  is  a  poor 


/^ 


94  PYGMIES  AND  PAPUANS 

creature,  particularly  susceptible  to  beri-beri  and  other 
diseases  of  the  tropics,  and  when  I  saw  convicts  die, 
as  did  unfortunately  happen,  I  came  to  the  conclusion 
that  the  balance  went  heavily  against  the  system.  It 
must,  however,  be  recorded  that  the  convicts  are 
extremely  well  treated.  Except  in  the  matter  of  pay 
— convicts  on  expeditions  receive  about  one  guilder 
(is.  Sd.)  a  month — they  are  treated  in  all  essentials 
exactly  like  the  native  soldiers  ;  they  have  the  same 
rations  of  food  and  the  same  tent  accommodation, 
and  many  of  them  enjoy  themselves  a  good  deal  more 
than  if  they  were  occupied  in  sweeping  the  roads  in  a 
town  in  Java.  Their  hours  of  labour  in  camp  are 
comparatively  short,  and  the  loads  they  are  given  to 
carry  on  the  march  are  by  no  means  excessive.  Nothing 
could  exceed  the  kindness  of  Cramer's  treatment  of  the 
men  under  his  command,  and  I  have  no  doubt  that  the 
same  may  be  said  of  the  treatment  of  convicts  elsewhere. 


CHAPTER  VIII 

Description  of  Wakatimi — The  Papuan  House — Coconut  Palms — The 
Sugar  Palm — Drunkenness  of  the  Natives — Drunken  Vagaries — 
Other  Cultivation — The  Native  Language — No  Interpreters — The 
Numerals — Difficulties  of  Understanding — Names  of  Places — Local 
Differences  of  Pronunciation. 

The  native  village  of  Wakatimi  lay  directly  opposite 

to    cur    base-camp   on   the   W.   bank   of   the   Mimika, 

which    was    there    about    150    yards    broad.     Beyond 

the  margin  of  the  river  was  a  strip  of  grass  intersected 

by  muddy  creeks,  where  the  natives  moored  their  canoes, 

and  beyond  that  was  Wakatimi.     The  village  consisted 

of  a  single  street  about  two  hundred  yards  long  lined 

on   one  side  by  huts,   which  usually  numbered  about 

sixty.     But  occasionally,  as  for  instance  when  we  first 

arrived,    and   once   or   twice   subsequently   when   large 

crowds  of  natives  from  other  villages  visited  the  place,  . 

it  happened  that  the  street  was  a  double  row  of  houses,     ^'-'^ 

and  every  available  spot  of  dry  ground  was  occupied.  .^^  ,.^c-^ 

Shifting:  house  is  a  very_simpje_agair,  as_most  of       _.^ 
the  building  materials  are  carried  about  in  the  canoes,      W     '\ 
and  the  canoes  come  and  go  in  the  most  casual  and  \^  v_i   ^^ 
unaccountable  manner.     Sometimes  there  were  perhaps  -'^-'^^h'^^ 
a  thousand  people  at  Wakatimi,  and  then  there  would  "^  ''       \) ^ 
be  days^wEeiTthere  was  not  a  soul  injhe  village.     There         ^        ^ 
were  times  when  for  weeks  together  there  were  large        '^  ^ 
villages  at  the  mouth  of  the  river,  and  there  were  other    ■''<^jy<^^^ 


96  PYGMIES  AND   PAPUANS 

times  when  the  coast  was  utterly  deserted  and  hardly 
a  trace  of  the  villages  remained.  We  were  never  able 
to  learn  what  it  was  that  prompted  these  migrations 
j^  of  the  natives,  but  it  is  probable  that  the  pursuit  of 
food  was  the  guiding  motive.  The  wandering  habits 
of  the  people  will  certainly  make  it  very  difficult  to 
administer  the  country  and  civilise  the  people,  if  an 
attempt  to  do  so  is  ever  made, 
^j.  The  typical  native  house  of  jthe  Mimika  district  is 

a  simple  rectangular  structure  with  a  framework  of 
light  poles  driven  into  the  ground,  the  cross-pieces 
and  roof  pole  being  tied  to  the  uprights  by  strands  of 
rattan.  In  some  houses  the  roof  is  a  simple  slope 
downwards  from  front  to  back,  but  in  most  cases  there 
is  a  central  ridge  pole  from  which  the  roof  slopes  to 
the  back  and  front,  that  at  the  back  being  longer  and 
going  lower  than  that  in  front.  The  height  of  the  ridge 
is  about  eight  feet ;  after  we  had  been  for  some  time  in 
the  country  the  people  improved  their  building  in 
imitation  of  our  houses  and  built  their  huts  ten,  and 
even  twelve  feet  high.  The  roof  is  made  of  "  atap," 
the  thatch  described  above  (p.  60),  and  the  walls  are 
mats  made  from  the  leaves  of  a  Screw-pine  [Pandamis). 
The  area  of  an  average  hut  is  about  9  by  12  feet,  the 
longer  dimensions  being  from  front  to  back. 

The  floor  is  covered  with  sand  to  a  depth  of  several 
^  inches,  which  is  prevented  from  escaping  into  the  street 
by  a  board  placed  on  its  edge  along  the  front  of  the 
hut.  The  sand  is  brought  from  the  seashore  and  must 
be  of  great  value  in  preserving  the  health  of  the  people  : 
the  huts  are  frequently  undeF~\vater  in  the  big  floods 


THEIB  HOUSES  97 

and  without   the   sand,   wliicli   quickly   dries,   it   would 

be   impossible   for   them   to   live   there.     Unfortunately 

the  sand  aggravates  the  sores  and  ulcers  from  which 

too  many  of  them  suffer,  but  that  is  perhaps  a  lesser 

evil   than   always   sleeping   on   sodden   ground.     Racks  ^^^^^^^ 

made  of  sticks,  on  which  are  stowed  bundles  of  arrows,  ^^v\  .y\^ 

spears,  clubs,  tobacco,  sago  and  all  the  other  portable    ---^'^  ^ 

property  of  the  family,  extend  from  one  wall  to  another,  \^^j 

so  that  it  is  almost  impossible  to  stand  upright  inside  ^^^''*^ 


a  hut.     The  door  is^an  opening  about  two  feet  square      ^t^^uQ 
in  the  front  w'all ;   as  well  as  being  the  means  of  entrance   q^^^ 
for  the  members  of  the  household  the  door  serves  as    2.  ft  ■^ 
the  principal  means  of  escape  for  the_smoke„of -the.  fire,   q^q/i 
which  is  constantly  kept  burning  inside.  ^^^M<^ 

It   is   only   rarely   that   a   house   remains   for   long 
separated  from  others  ;    when  a  second  house  is  built 
it  is  attached  to  the  side  of  the  first,  and  the  dividing 
wall  is  removed.     In  a  large  village  the  houses  are  built 
in  rows  of  varying  length,  according  to  the  nature  of 
the   ground,   and  there   may  be   as   many   as   fifty   or   l^'^^^TT^js 
sixty  joined  together.     If  you  go  inside  you  find  that  it   ^^^ 
is  a  single  long  house  "without  any  dividing  walls,  but    \^<->^^^ , 
each   family   keeps  to  its   own  particular_section   and    ^^ 
use   its    own   private    entrance.      When   the    place    is    t-^^'"^'  ^ 
crowded  with  people,  and  a  number  of  fires  are  burning, 
the  atmosphere  inside  the  house  may  be  more  readily 
imagined  than  described. 

The  feature  that  most  distinguishes  Wakatimi  from 
all  the  other  viUages  that  we  saw  is  its  fine  grove  of 
coconut  palms.  The  village  street  is  bordered  with 
them   on  the  side   opposite   to   the  houses,   and  there 

H 


98  PYGMIES  AND   PAPUANS 

must  be  three  or  four  hundred  trees  in  all  They  afford 
a  very  pleasant  shade  to  the  vihage,  and  their  graceful 
trunks  curving  this  way  and  that  are  reahy  picturesque 
and  conveniently  relieve  the  ugliness  of  the  Papuan 
houses.  It  is  rather  dangerous  to  live  so  close  to  coconut 
trees,  and  sometimes  when  the  wind  blew  in  gusts 
before  the  rain  we  heard  warning  shouts  and  the  heavy 
thud  of  a  nut  falling  to  the  ground ;  but  accidents 
never  seemed  to  happen.  The  nuts  are,  of  course,  a 
source  of  great  wealth  to  the  Wakatimi  people,  who 
exchange  them  for  bananas  and  tobacco  with  the 
people  of  Obota,  and  while  we  were  in  the  country 
they  brought  us  altogether  thousands  of  nuts  for  which 
they  received  riches  undreamt  of  before.  At  one  or  two 
places  near  the  sea,  and  at  several  places  on  the  Mimika 
River  we  found  coconut  palms,  but  far  up  the  river 
they  did  not  occur,  nor  did  we  see  any  on  the  Kapare 
River  ;  and  I  believe  all  those  we  saw  were  planted 
by  the  natives,  and  that  none  of  them  were  self-sown. 

The  method  of  cultivation  is  extremely  simple. 
A  ripe  nut  is  left  out  on  the  roof  of  a  hut  and  allowed 
to  sprout  ;  when  the  shoot  is  about  a  foot  or  more  in 
length,  a  small  patch  of  ground  is  cleared,  preferably 
in  a  sandy  place  on  the  river  bank  or  near  the  sea  shore, 
a  hole  is  dug  and  the  sprouting  nut  is  planted.  From 
time  to  time,  if  he  remembers  to  do  so,  the  native  will 
clear  away  the  strangling  vegetation  from  the  young 
plant,  and  in  about  five  years,  under  favourable  con- 
ditions, the  palm  begins  to  bear  fruit. 

Growing  commonly  near  Wakatimi  is  another 
species  of  palm,   which,   though  it  has  not   the  value 


DRUNKENNESS  99 

of  the  coconut  palm,  is  yet  more  prized  by  the  natives. 
This  is  the  Sugar  palm  {Arcnga  sacchari/era) ,  and  from 
it  is  made  a  very  potent  and  intoxicating  liquor. 
When  the  palm  is  in  fruit — it  bears  a  heavy  bunch 
of  dark  green  fruit — a  cut  is  made  in  the  stem  below 
the  stalk  of  the  fruit,  and  the  juice  trickles  out  and 
is  collected  in  the  shell  of  a  coconut.  Apparently  the 
juice  ferments  very  rapidly  without  the  addition  of 
any  other  substance,  for  it  is  drunk  almost  as  soon  as 
it  is  collected  and  the  native  becomes  horribly  intoxicated. 

During  the  first  few  weeks  of  our  stay  in  the 
country  the  people  were  on  their  good  behaviour,  or 
else  they  found  sufficient  amusement  in  coming  to  see 
us  and  our  works,  but  they  soon  tired  of  that  and  went 
back  to  their  normal  habits.  Many  of  them  went  to 
the  drinking  places  by  day,  and  we  often  saw  them 
lying  or  sitting  at  the  foot  of  the  tree,  while  one  of  their 
party  stood  at  the  top  of  a  bamboo  ladder  collecting 
the  palm  wine.  But  the  worst  was  a  small  gang  of 
about  a  dozen  men,  the  laziest  in  the  village,  whose 
custom  it  was  to  start  off  towards  evening  in  canoes 
to  their  favourite  drinking  tree,  where  they  spent  the 
night  drinking  and  making  night  hideous  with  their 
songs  and  shouts.  In  the  morning  they  returned  raving 
to  the  village  and  as  often  as  not  they  started  quarrel- 
ling and  fighting  and  knocking  the  houses  to  pieces 
(a  favourite  occupation  of  the  angry  Papuan)  before 
they  settled  down  to  sleep  off  the  effects  of  their 
potations. 

As  a  rule,  the  men  were  the  worst  offenders,  and 
the  women  drank  but  seldom,   but   I   well  remember 


100  PYGMIES  AND  PAPUANS 

one  day  seeing  a  man  and  his  wife  both  hopelessly 
drunk  come  over  to  our  camp.  It  was  pouring  with 
rain  and  their  canoe  was  several  inches  deep  in  water, 
but  they  danced  up  and  down  in  it  and  sang  a  drunken 
ditty ;  it  was  a  ludicrous  and  at  the  same  time  heart- 
rending exhibition.  The  man,  when  we  first  knew 
him,  was  a  fine  fehow  who  one  day  cHmbed  up  a  palm 
tree  to  get  us  coconuts,  a  feat  which  no  man  out  of 
condition  can  perform ;  a  few  months  later  he  was 
hardly  ever  seen  sober,  and  in  January  he  died.  A 
smiling  round-faced  youth  called  Ukuma,  who  was  one 
of  our  particular  friends  at  first  and  was  privileged 
to  wander  where  he  liked  about  the  camp,  attached 
himself  to  the  drinking  party,  and  before  we  left  the 
country  he  looked  an  old  man,  and  I  had  difficulty  in 
recognising  him. 

Though  the  drunken  vagaries  of  the  natives  were 
usually  food  for  tears,  they  sometimes  provided  us 
with  amusement.  One  afternoon  one  of  the  principal 
men  of  Wakatimi  came  down  to  the  river  bank  quite 
intoxicated  and  took  a  canoe,  which  he  paddled  out 
into  mid-stream  and  there  moored  it.  From  there 
he  proceeded  to  shoot  arrows  vaguely  and  promiscuously 
at  the  village,  raving  and  shouting  what  sounded  to  be 
horrible  curses.  Some  of  the  arrows  fell  into  the  village 
and  some  sailed  over  the  palm  trees,  and  now  and 
again  he  turned  round  and  shot  harmlessly  into  our 
camp,  but  nobody  took  the  slightest  notice  of  him 
except  his  wife,  who  went  down  to  the  river  bank  and 
told  him  in  plain  language  her  opinion  of  him.  This 
caused  him  to  turn  his  attention  to  her,  but  his  aim 


FRUITS  loi 

was  wild  and  the  arrows  missed  their  mark,  so  he 
desisted  and  went  back  to  the  shore,  where  the  woman 
broke  across  her  knee  the  remainder  of  his  bundle  of 
arrows,  while  he  cooled  his  fevered  brow  in  the  river. 
Then,  while  she  delivered  a  further  lecture,  he  followed 
her  back  to  their  hut  looking  like  a  whipped  and 
ashamed  dog.  It  can  hardly  be  doubted  that  palm 
wine  shortens  the  lives  of  many  of  the  Papuans,  but 
one  must  hesitate  before  condemning  an  absolutely 
untaught  and  savage  race  for  excessive  indulgence  in 
one  of  the  pleasures  that  vary  their  monotonous  lives. 

As  well  as  coconuts  the  Mimika  people  have  also 
bananas,  papayas  {Carica  papaya),  water-melons  and 
pumpkins,  all  of  them  of  a  very  inferior  kind.  It 
cannot  be  said  that  they  cultivate  these  fruits  ;  they 
occasionally  get  a  banana  shoot  and  plant  it  in  the 
ground  by  the  riverside,  where  it  may  or  may  not  grow 
and  produce  fruit,  but  they  make  no  clearings  and  take 
very  little  trouble  to  ensure  the  life  of  the  plant.  The 
papayas  and  the  melons  and  pumpkins  are  sometimes 
seen  growing  about  the  native  dwellings  ;  but  they,  too, 
seem  to  be  there  more  by  accident  than  by  any  design 
on  the  part  of  the  people.  At  Obota  we  found  a  few 
pineapples,  which  were  probably  the  descendants  of 
some  that  were  brought  to  the  Mimika  by  M.  Dumas 
a  few  years  earlier. 

It  has  been  stated  in  the  previous  chapters  that 
the  natives  told  us  this  or  that,  and  that  we  asked 
them  for  information  about  one  thing  or  another. 
From  this  the  reader  must  not  conclude  that  we  acquired 
a   very   complete   knowledge   of   the   native   language, 


102  PYGMIES  AND   PAPUANS 

for  that,  unfortunately,  was  not  the  case,  and  even 
at  the  end  of  the  fifteen  months  that  we  spent  in  their 
country  we  were  not  able  to  converse  with  them. 
Lieutenant  Cramer  and  I  compiled  a  vocabulary  of 
nearly  three  hundred  words,*  and  we  talked  a  good 
deal  with  the  people,  but  we  never  reached  the  position 
of  being  able  to  exchange  ideas  on  any  single  subject. 

In  the  Eastern  and  Northern  parts  of  New  Guinea 
it  has  always  been  found  possible  to  communicate  with 
the  natives  through  the  medium  of  some  known 
language  ;  even  if  there  were  many  differences  noticed 
in  the  language  of  a  new  district,  there  were  always 
some  common  words  which  formed  the  foundation  of 
a  more  complete  understanding.  The  Western  end 
of  New  Guinea  has  been  for  centuries  visited  by  traders 
speaking  Malay  dialects,  some  of  whom  have  settled  in 
the  country ;  or  Papuans  from  those  parts  have 
travelled  to  Malay-speaking  islands  and  have  returned 
with  a  sufficient  knowledge  of  the  language  to  act  as 
interpreters  to  people  visiting  those  districts. 

But  the  long  stretch  of  the  South-west  coast  from 
the  MacCluer  Gulf  as  far  as  the  Fly  River  has  been 
quite  neglected  by  Malay-speaking  traders,  partly  on 
account  of  the  poverty  of  the  country  and  partly  by 
reason  of  the  shallow  sea  and  the  frequent  storms  which 
make  navigation  difficult  and  dangerous,  so  that  the 
Malay  language  was  of  no  use  to  us  as  a  means  of  talking 
with  the  natives.  It  is  true  that  two  men  from  the 
Mimika  district  had  been  taken  a  few  years  previously 
to  Fak-fak,  the  Dutch  Government  post  on  the  South 
*  Sec  Appendix  C. 


LANGUAGE   DIFFICULTIES  103 

side  of  the  MacCluer  Gulf,  but  though  they  spent  two 
years  there  and  attempts  were  made  to  teach  them 
Malay,  in  1910  the  extent  of  their  knowledge  of  the 
language  was  the  two  words  Tida,  tnan  (No,  master). 

It  is  unfortunate  that  there  is  no  common  language 
along  the  S.  coast,  nor  even  a  language  wdth  w^ords 
common  to  all  the  dialects  in  use.  We  were  visited 
on  one  occasion  by  the  Dutch  Assistant  Resident 
from  Fak-fak  ;  the  native  interpreter  \\\\o  came  with 
him,  and  who  knew  all  the  native  dialects  of  the  Fak-fak 
district,  could  not  understand  one  word  of  the  Mimika 
language.  On  another  occasion  some  natives  from 
Mimika  were  taken  down  by  steamer  to  Merauke,  the 
Government  post  in  S.W.  New  Guinea,  not  far  from 
the  boundary  of  British  Papua,  and  there  they  found 
the  language  of  the  natives  quite  unintelligible  to  them. 

So  we  found  ourselves  confronted  with  the  task  of 
learning  a  language  with  neither  grammar,  dictionary 
nor  interpreter.  This  may  not  seem  to  be  an  in- 
superable difficulty,  nor  is  it  perhaps  where  Europeans 
and  educated  people  are  concerned,  but  with  Papuans 
it  is  a  very  different  problem.  The  first  thing  to  do 
— and  very  few  of  them  would  even  grasp  the  idea — is 
to  make  them  understand  that  you  wish  to  learn  their 
words.  You  may  point  at  an  object  and  look  in- 
telligent and  expectant,  but  they  are  slow  to  take  your 
meaning,  and  they  soon  tire  of  giving  information. 
The  facial  expression,  which  amongst  us  conveys  even 
to  a  deaf  man  an  interrogation,  means  nothing  to  them, 
nor  has  the  sideways  shake  of  the  head  a  negative 
meaning  to  Papuans. 


104  PYGMIES  AND   PAPUANS 

In  tr3dng  to  learn  a  new  language  of  this  kind  most 
people  (I  imagine)  would  begin,  as  we  did,  with  the 
numerals.  But  our  researches  in  this  direction  did  not 
take  us  very  far,  for  we  made  the  interesting  discovery 
that  they  have  words  for  one  and  two  only  ;  inakwa 
(one),  jamani  (two).  This  is  not  to  say  that  they  cannot 
reckon  beyond  two,  for  they  can,  by  using  the  fingers 
and  thumbs,  and  beginning  always  with  the  thumb 
of  the  right  hand,  reckon  with  tolerable  accuracy  up  to 
ten.  For  numbers  above  ten  they  use  the  toes,  never, 
so  far  as  we  observed,  two  or  three  toes,  but  always 
all  the  toes  together  to  indicate  a  large  but  uncertain 
number.  Sometimes  they  opened  and  closed  the  fingers 
of  both  hands  two  or  three  times  and  uttered  the  word 
takirl,  which  appeared  to  mean  "  many."  They  did 
not,  as  some  people  do,  use  the  word  which  means 
"  hand  "  to  indicate  five  or  a  quantity  of  about  that 
number. 

With  patience  we  learnt  a  great  number  of  sub- 
stantives, the  names  of  animals,  the  parts  of  the  body, 
the  various  possessions  of  the  natives  and  so  forth,  and 
with  more  difficulty  we  learnt  some  of  the  active  verbs. 
But  when  we  came  to  abstract  ideas,  our  researches 
ceased  abruptly  for  lack  of  the  question  words,  who, 
how,  where,  when,  etc.  ;  these  we  were  never  able  to 
learn,  and  it  is  impossible  to  act  them. 

Thus  we  were  never  able  to  find  out  what  they 
thought  of  various  things  ;  we  could  point  to  the  moon 
and  be  told  its  name,  but  we  were  never  able  to  say, 
"  What  is  the  moon  ?  "  We  learnt  the  names  of  light- 
ning and  thunder,  but  we  never  knew  who  they  thought 


OBTAINING  INFORMATION  105 

produced  them.  We  could  not  find  out  where  their 
stone  axes  came  from,  nor  how  old  they  were,  nor  who 
made  them ;  and  a  hundred  other  questions,  which 
we  should  have  liked  to  put,  remained  unanswered. 

These  limitations  of  our  knowledge  of  the  language 
were  particularly  annoying  when  we  tried  to  find  out 
the  simplest  ties  of  relationship.  It  may  be  thought 
very  unintelligent  of  us  that  we  never  learnt  the  word 
for  father,  in  spite  of  many  attempts  to  do  so.  If 
you  pointed  to  a  child  and  asked  a  man,  knowing  him 
to  be  the  father,  what  the  child  was,  he  would  slap 
himself  on  the  chest  and  answer,  "  Dorota  kamare"  (my 
penis)  ;  then  if  you  pointed  to  himself  he  would  tell 
you  his  own  name,  but  never  any  word  that  could 
possibly  be  construed  as  father.  If  you  tried  the  same 
thing  with  the  mother  she  would  point  to  the  child  and 
say,  "Dorota  auwe"  (my  breast).  The  child  on  being 
questioned  pointed  to  the  father  and  always  said  his 
name,  the  mother  it  would  call  Aina  (woman),  but 
perhaps  this  word  also  means  mother. 

There  were  two  men  at  Parimau  so  much  alike  as 
to  be  unmistakably  brothers  ;  we  learnt  their  names 
and  that  they  were  Inakwa  kamare  (one  penis),  but 
we  never  found  out  the  name  of  their  relationship. 

Seeing  that  some  of  the  people  have  a  very  good 
idea  of  drawing  on  the  ground  a  map  of  the  country, 
I  tried  one  day  a  graphic  method  of  obtaining  the 
relationships  of  a  man  whose  name  and  whose  wife's 
name  and  son's  name  I  knew.  I  put  sticks  on  the 
ground  to  represent  him  and  his  wife  and  son,  and  then 
in  a  tentative  sort  of  way  put  in  a  stick  to  represent  his 


io6  PYGMIES  AND   PAPUANS 

father,  whose  name  he  mentioned,  but  the  game  did 
not  interest  him  and  my  researches  came  to  an  end. 

Even  the  apparently  simple  matter  of  enquiring 
the  names  of  places  is  not  so  easy  as  one  would  think. 
When  the  first  party  went  up  the  Mimika  to  Parimau 
they  pointed  to  the  huts  and  asked  what  the  village 
was  called  ;  the  answer  given  was  *'  Tupue,"  meaning 
I  believe,  the  name  of  the  family  who  lived  in  the  huts 
pointed  at.  For  several  months  we  called  the  place 
Tupu6,  and  the  name  appeared  in  various  disguises 
in  the  English  newspapers.  When  I  was  at  Parimau 
in  July,  it  occurred  to  me  to  doubt  the  name  of  Tupue, 
which  we  never  heard  the  natives  use,  so  I  questioned 
a  man  elaborately.  Pointing  in  the  direction  of  Waka- 
timi,  I  said  in  his  language  :  "  Many  houses,  Wakatimi," 
and  he  nodded  assent  ;  then  pointing  in  the  direction 
of  another  village  that  we  had  visited  I  said  :  "  Many 
houses,  Imah,"  to  which  he  agreed ;  then  I  said, 
"  Many  houses,"  and  pointed  towards  Parimau.  This 
performance  was  repeated  three  times  before  he  under- 
stood my  intention  and  supphed  the  word  "  Parimau," 
and  then  he  shouted  the  whole  story  across  the  river 
to  the  people  in  the  village  who  received  it  with  shouts 
of  laughter,  and  well  they  might.  It  was  as  if  a 
foreigner,  who  had  been  living  for  six  months  in  a  place 
which  he  was  accustomed  to  call  Smith,  enquired  again 
one  day  what  its  name  was  and  found  that  it  was 
London. 

The  language  spoken  by  the  people  of  Mimika  is  by 
no  means  unpleasant  to  listen  to,  and  with  the  customary 
sing-song  intonation  it  would   be  almost  musical,  if  it 


LANGUAGE   OF  MIMIKA  107 

were  not  for  the  harsh  voices  of  the  natives,  both  men 
and  women.  There  are  many  agreeably  soft  gutterals, 
and  there  is  no  hissing  sound  in  the  language,  as  they 
are  unable  to  pronounce  the  letter  "  s."  Many  of 
their  words  are  really  very  pleasing,  notably  some  of 
their  names,  such  as  "  Oonabe,"  "  Iname,"  "  Tebo," 
"  Magena,"  "  Awariao,"  "  Idoriaota,"  "  Poandio,"  and 
"  Mareru,"  to  mention  only  a  few  ;  some  of  the  names 
were  so  long  that  I  never  succeeded  in  writing  them 
correctl3^ 

The  people  who  lived  near  the  upper  waters  of  the 
Mimika  appeared  to  speak  the  same  dialect  as  those 
living  near  the  coast,  with  one  noticeable  difference. 
Those  words  containing  a  "  k  "  in  the  language  of  the 
people  at  the  coast  lose  the  "  k  "  in  the  mouths  of  the 
up-river  natives,  thus :  Ke  (rain)  in  the  Wakatimi 
language  becomes  'e  at  Parimau ;  Kie  (a  leech)  becomes 
'ie,  Pokane  (an  axe)  becomes  Po  'anc. 

The  only  rule  of  grammar  that  we  learnt  was  the 
simple  method  of  constructing  the  possessive  case  by 
adding  the  suffix  ta.  Thus  from  doro  (I)  you  have 
dorota  (mine)  ;  from  oro  (you),  orota  (your),  and  in  the 
same  way  Tehota  (Tebo's)  ;  Mareruta  (Mareru's),  and 
so  on. 

They  were  curious  to  know  our  names  and  hked  to 
address  us  by  them  ;  Goodfellow's  and  Rawling's  names 
baffied  them  completely  ;  Marshall's  became  *'  Martti  "  ; 
they  made  a  good  attempt  at  mine  in  "  Wollatona," 
and  Cramer's  they  pronounced  perfectly. 

So  far  as  I  know,  they  never  finish  a  word  with  a 
consonant,  and  when  they  adopted  a  Malay  or  Dutcli 


io8  PYGMIES  AND  PAPUANS 

word  which  ended  in  a  consonant,  they  always  added 
a  vowel;    for  instance,  tuana  (master),  KapUana  (Cap-j 
tain),  maiora  (Major). 

Some  of  their  newly-constructed  words  will  puzzle 
future  philologists  who  go  there ;  for  instance,  the 
Malay  word  pisau  (a  knife)  they  called  pitau,  substi- 
tuting "  t  "  for  the  "  s  "  which  they  cannot  pronounce  ; 
petau  was  found  easier  to  say  than  pitau,  and  eventually 
it  became  changed  to  pauti,  which  was  the  finally  accepted 
version. 

Probably  the  best  means  of  learning  the  local  dialect 
would  be  to  encourage  an  intelligent  child  to  visit 
your  camp  daily,  where  it  would  learn  Malay  and  in 
course  of  time  might  be  able  to  act  as  interpreter  ;  but 
the  process  of  education  would  be  a  slow  one,  and  it 
would  be  constantly  interrupted  by  the  wandering 
habits  of  the  natives.  The  time  that  we  spent  in  the 
country  was  too  short  for  any  such  attempt  to  be 
made,  and  indeed  it  was  not  until  we  had  been  there 
for  several  months  that  the  children  came  fearlessly 
into  our  camp.  But  now  that  the  natives  have  full 
confidence  in  Europeans  a  patient  scholar  might  make 
a  complete  study  of  a  quite  unknown  language. 


^  '■^' 


CHAPTER^IX 

The  Papuans  of  Wakatimi — Colour — Hair — Eyes — Nose — Tattooing — 
Height  —  Dress  —  Widows'  Bonnets  —  Growth  of  Children  —  Pre- 
ponderance of  Men — Number  of  Wives — Childhood — Sivimming  and 
other  Games — Imitativeness  of  Children — The  Search  for  Food — 
Women  as  Workers — Fishing  Nets — Other  Methods  of  Fishing — An 
Extract  from  Dam  pier. 

The  Papuans  of  the  Mimika  district  may  be  divided      ^ 
into    two    classes    or    tribes  :     those    who    Hve    in    the  c^u^^o-'^ 
villages  on    the  lower  waters  of    the  river    and    make   ^^u<^ 
periodical  migrations  to  the  sea  ;    and  those  who  live    ^^^,'^,  <x 
on  the  upper  waters  of  the  river  near  the  foot  of  the 
mountains    and    who     never    go    down    to    the    coast. 
There    is    a    wide    interval    of    uninhabitable    country 
between  the  regions  occupied  by  these  two  tribes,  and 
communication  between  them,  if  it  takes  place  at  all, 
is  very  rare  ;    but  they  resemble  each  other  so  closely, 
both  in  physical  characters  and  in  their  manners  and 
customs,  that  a  single  description  will  suffice  for  both.* 
The  other  native  race  of  the  district,  the  pygmy  people 
who  live  in  the  mountains,  will  be  described  in  a  later 
chapter. 

The  skin  of  the  Mimika  native  is  a  very  dark  brown, 
almost  rusty  black,  but  a  dark  colour  without  any  of 

*  The  number  of  individuals  examined  was  not  very  great  and 
the  difference  in  their  measurements  are  so  insignificant,  that  they 
may  be  considered  all  to  belong  to  one  race. 


no  PYGMIES  AND   PAPUANS 

^  y^  the  gloss  seen  in  the  skin  of  the  African  negro.     Not 

fl.i^  infrequently   we  saw  men  of   a  lighter,   nearly  yellow, 

"'  is  colour,  and  in  the  Wakatimi  district  there  were  three 

L(i^\P^        pure  albinos,  a  man,  a  woman  and  a  child.     The  man 

"^^^^  and  woman  were  covered  with  blotches   of  a  pinkish 

i)  fi/Vi^  pigment  and  were  peculiarly  disagreeable  to  look  at , 

the  child,  a  sucking  infant,  and  the  offspring  of  black 

parents,  was  as  white  as  any  European  baby,  and  was 

called,  out  of  compliment  to  us,  "  Tuana."  * 

The  hair  is  black  and  thick  and  frizzly  ;   it  never, 

or  seldom  grows  long,  so  you  do  not  see  the  ornamental 

coiffures   characteristic    of   the   natives    of   some   other 

parts  of  the  island  ;    but  they   are  skilful  in  plaiting 

what  there  is  of  it  and  take  some  pride  in  the  result. 

fWrCKA  Three-   or   four-pronged   combs   are   worn   in   the   hair 

(jC  .      more  as  a  means  of  carrying  a  useful  article  than  as 

^^^  S^"     ornaments.     The  hair  of  young  children  is  often  quite 

Vj^^  \N&U^  fair,  but  it  becomes  dark  as  they  grow  up  ;   some  of  the 

adults  have   the  custom,   common  in   other  places,   of 

dyeing  the  hair  yellow  with  lime. 

The  eye  of  the  Papuan  child  is  the  eye  of  any  bright 
dark-eyed  child  here  or  elsewhere  ;  the  white  of  the 
eye  is  white  and  the  iris  dark  and  clear.  But  very 
soon  the  white  becomes  bloodshot  and  yellow,  and  the 
iris  blurred.  The  expression  in  the  eyes  is  a  thing 
that  haunts  one  by  its  forlornness  and  hopelessness ; 
it  cannot  be  described,  but  you  may  see  it  in  the  eyes  of 
certain    animals.     They    show    a    strong    disinclination 

*  Tua7i  =  master,  v.  p.  103.  The  natives  always  addressed  us  as 
"  Tuana,"  and  many  babies,  of  whom  their  parents  were  particularly 
proud,  were  called  "  Tuana." 


FEATURES  OF  THE  PAPUANS     iii 

to  look  you  straight  in  the  eyes,  and  when  you  rarely 
make  them  do  so  you  seem  to  be  looking  into  an  un- 
lighted  and  empt}^  space. 

The  teeth  are  strong,  but  not  conspicuously  white 
and  perfect  like  those  of  some  other  black  races.  A 
good  many  men  file  or  chip  the  upper  incisors  to  a 
point,  but  this  has  not,  so  far  as  we  know,  any  particular 
significance. 

The  nose  is  almost  bridgeless  and  is  of  a  somewhat 
hooked  and  fleshy  type  with  wide  nostrils.  The  septum 
of  the  nose  is  pierced  when  the  boys  are  young,  and  the 
hole  is  kept  open  by  a  rolled-up  leaf  thrust  through  it  ; 
in  this  way  it  is  gradually  dilated  until  the  man  is  able 
to  wear  a  carved  ornament  of  a  piece  of  the  bill  of  a 
hornbill  or  a  curved  boar's  tusk,  with  which  he  decorates 
himself  on  festal  occasions.  The  nose-piercing  is 
attended  with  a  good  deal  of  ceremony,  but  w^e  were 
never  fortunate  enough  to  see  it ;  it  is  done  when  the 
child  is  about  five  years  old,  and  the  operation  is  made 
(according  to  native  accounts)  with  a  piece  of  sharpened 
bone  heated  in  the  fire.  Small  ornaments  are  some- 
times worn  in  holes  in  the  alae  nasi  which  are  pierced 
in  all  the  children,  both  boys  and  girls,  when  they  are 
small  infants. 

Many  of  the  people  pierce  the  lobes  of  the  ear,  but 
the  custom  is  not  universal.  The  ornaments  worn  in 
the  ear  are  strings  of  two  or  three  beads,  or  small  rings 
of  plaited  fibres  or  rattan,  or  the  claw  of  a  cassowary. 
We  took  with  us  a  large  number  of  Jew's  harps  as 
trade  goods,  but  the  natives  did  not  care  for  them, 
and  two  (the  only  two,  I  believe)  that  we  did  succeed 


112  PYGMIES  AND   PAPUANS 

in  making  the  people  accept,  were  worn  by  them  as 
ear-rings.  Another  man,  a  constant  smoker,  in  default 
of  a  better  cigar  case  always  carried  a  cigar  in  the  lobe 
of  his  ear. 

Tattooing,  in  the  proper  sense  of  the  term,  is  un- 
known to  the  Mimika  Papuans,  but  a  great  number  of 
them  practise  cicatrisation  or  scarring.  The  usual 
places  for  these  markings  are  the  buttocks  and  the 
outer  side  of  the  upper  (usually  the  left)  arm.  On  the 
buttocks  the  marks  are  almost  always  the  same,  a  cross, 
about  two  inches  square,  on  the  left  buttock,  and  a 
cross  surrounded  by  a  circle  on  the  right.  The  mark 
on  the  arm  is  about  four  inches  long  and  sometimes 
represents  a  snake  and  sometimes  a  scorpion  or  a  cray- 
fish, but  the  meaning  of  it,  and  whether  or  not  it  had 
some  totemistic  significance  we  were  unable  to  learn. 
Some  of  the  women  affect  a  scar  between  the  breasts, 
which  makes  a  very  unsightly  contraction,  and  we 
occasionally  saw  people  with  irregular  scars  all  over 
the  upper  part  of  the  breast  and  back,  but  it  is  probable 
that  most  of  them  were  the  signs  rather  of  former 
quarrels  than  due  to  a  spirit  of  coquetry. 

They  are  found  of  painting  their  faces  with  a  bright 
red  earth,  lumps  of  which  they  sometimes  find  and 
prize  very  highly,  and  not  infrequently  we  saw  men  with 
their  faces  smeared  black  with  a  mixture  of  fat  and 
charcoal,  or  whitened  with  powdered  sago,  but  the 
reason,  if  there  were  any  but  vanity,  for  this  adornment 
we  did  not  discover. 

The  average  height  of  men  measured  at  Wakatimi 
and    Parimau    is    5    feet    6    inches.     No    women    were 


DRESS  113 

measured,  but  it  would  probably  be  found  that  the 
average  height  of  the  women  was  about  two  inches 
less  than  that  of  the  men.  Such  a  height  is  small  com- 
pared with  that  of  many  races,  but  the  first  impression 
you  get  of  the  PapuaiA|s  that  they  are  tall,  for  they 
hold  themselves  well,  ^p ,  all  naked  people  look  taller 
than  those  who  go  cllthed.  Their  legs  are  thin  and 
rather  meagre,  due  in  J  great  measure  to  the  large  pro- 
portion of  their  lives  thai  is  spent  in  canoes,  but  they  walk 
with  a  good  swinging  ^t  and  cover  the  ground  easily. 

It  is  a  curious  thing  that  a  black  man  never  looks 
naked  ;  a  white  man  undressed  looks  a  naked  man, 
so  too  does  a  yellow  man,  but  a  Papuan — and  nobody 
could  wear  much  less  in  the  way  of  clothes  than  he 
does — always  seems  to  be  sufficiently  clad.  The  dress 
of  the  Papuan  men,  as  has  been  suggested  above,  is 
scanty  in  the  extreme.  They  have,  or  had  before  we 
visited  them,  no  cloth  except  a  very  inferior  bark  cloth 
made  from  the  bark  of  a  species  of  iig  tree.  Some  of 
the  men  wear  a  narrow  strip  of  this  bark  cloth,  which 
hangs  down  in  front  from  a  string  round  the  loins 
and  keeps  up  an  ineffectual  pretence  of  decency. 

The  more  usual  covering  is  the  bamboo  penis-case, 
which  is  kept  in  position  by  pulling  the  preputium 
through  a  hole  in  the  lower  end  of  the  case.  There  are 
three  or  four  different  patterns  of  penis-cases,  and  they 
are  always  ornamented  with  carved  designs.  Another 
equally  common  fashion  of  covering  is  the  shell ;  this 
is  an  oval  or  roughly  squared  segment  of  a  large  white 
sea  shell,  sometimes  as  much  as  six  inches  in  diameter. 
It  is  worn  on  a  string  which  passes  through  two  holes 


^ 


114  PYGMIES  AND   PAPUANS 

bored  in  it,  and  is  tied  tightly  round  the  loins.  The 
convex  surface  of  the  shell  faces  forwards,  and  the 
preputium  is  pulled  upwards  and  clipped  under  the 
lower  margin  of  the  shell.  Both  the  bamboo  case  and 
the  shell  are  useful  as  a  protection  against  the  leeches 
and  thorns  of  the  jungle. 

Small  boys  go  quite  naked  until  they  reach  the 
time  of  puberty,  when  for  a  short  period  they  wear  a 
sort  of  skirt  made  from  the  shredded  leaves  of  the 
pandanns.  Though  the  men  like  very  much  to  wear 
round  their  heads  strips  of  our  coloured  cloth,  they  do 
not  normally  use  any  kind  of  head-gear  except  on  cere-  1 
monial  occasions,  when  the  men  who  beat  the  drums 
wear  elaborate  hats  ornamented  with  the  plumes  of 
birds  of  paradise.  Many  of  the  men  wear  arm-bands 
above  the  elbow  and  leg-bands  below  the  knee,  made 
of  tightly  w^oven  fibre  or  of  fine  strips  of  rattan. 

The  women  are  rather  more  clothed  than  the  men, 
but  it  cannot  be  said  that  they  are  at  all  overdressed. 
The  usual  garment  consists  of  a  narrow  belt  of  bark 
cloth  or  grass  round  the  waist,  from  which  there  hang 
a  narrow  strip  of  bark  cloth  in  front,  reaching  about 
half  way  down  the  thigh,  and  a  wider  strip,  somewhat 
after  the  fashion  of  the  tail  of  an  Englishman's  evening 
coat,  extending  as  far  as  the  knee  behind.  In  addition 
to  this,  many  of  the  women  wear  a  sort  of  short  waist- 
coat or  sleeveless  bodice  made  of  plaited  grass  or  fibre 
with  tags  or  tassels  hanging  down  in  a  sort  of  fringe 
from  its  lower  edge.  Newly-married  women  wear  a 
sort  of  apron,  or  rather  a  long  fringe  of  shredded  leaves, 
w^hich  hangs  down  from  the  waist. 


WOMEN    OF    WAKATIMI. 

(Oil  the  left  is  a  widow  wearing  the  bonnet. 


WIDOWS'   WEEDS  115 

The  best  dressed,  or  in  an}'  case  the  most  dressed, 
members  of  the  community  are  the  widows,  who  wear, 
in  addition  to  the  other  articles  of  female  attire,  what 
can  only  be  described  as  a  poke  bonnet.  In  some  cases 
the  bonnet  projects  so  far  in  front  of  the  face  as  to 
obscure  the  features,  in  some  it  is  of  a  conical  design, 
and  in  others  it  resembles  in  shape  nothing  so  much 
as  the  morion  of  a  mediaeval  man-at-arms. 

Like  the  waistcoats  worn  by  the  women,  the  bonnets 
are  made  of  ingeniously  plaited  fibre,  and  both  of 
these  look  well  when  they  are  newly  made,  but  they 
very  quickly  become  hideous  with  damp  and  dirt,  and 
the  wearer  is  a  person  to  be  shunned.  The  small  girls, 
unlike  the  boys,  wear  a  narrow  strip  of  bark  cloth 
tucked  between  the  legs  almost  as  soon  as  they  can  walk. 
It  is  perhaps  worth  mentioning  that  these  people  have 
the  art  of  sewing ;  they  make  eyed  needles  out  of 
sharp  fish  bones,  and  with  strands  of  fibre  they  contrive 
to  sew  pieces  of  bark  cloth  very  neatly  together. 

There  are  no  milk-producing  domesticated  animals 
in  the  country,  so  the  women  suckle  their  infants  for 
a  very  long  time,  and  you  may  occasionally  see 
children  of  (apparently)  three  or  four  years  old  at  their 
mothers'  breasts  ;  but  whether  young  or  old,  it  is  very 
difficult  to  estimate  the  age  of  these  people.  In  the 
course  of  a  year  we  saw  Httle  children  grow  into  active 
boys  and  we  saw  young  men  become  middle-aged. 
I  should  say — but  this  is  pure  speculation — that  a  man 
is  old  at  forty  years  and  a  woman  at  an  even  earlier 
age  ;  it  seems  probable,  too,  that  the  life  of  a  woman 
is  shorter  than  that  of  a  man. 


ii6  PYGMIES  AND  PAPUANS 

Partly  on  account  of  the  migratory  habits  of  the 
natives,  and  partly  owing  to  the  fact  that  at  no  hour 
of  the  day  until  nightfall  are  all  the  people  in  or  about 
the  houses,  it  was  never  found  possible  to  take  a  census 
of  a  village,  but  from  our  observations  we  arrived  at 
the  conclusion  that  the  number  of  men  was  decidedly 
greater  than  that  of  women. 

The  number  of  a  man's  wives  was  a  favourite  subject 
for  boasting  and  they  often  assured  us  that  they  had 
two  or  even  three  wives,  but  we  only  knew  two  men 
who  certainly  had  two  wives  ;  on  the  other  hand  we 
knew  a  considerable  number  of  men  who  had  no  wives 
at  all.  It  appears  that  a  man  may  take  a  w4fe  from  his 
own  village  or  from  a  village  in  the  same  district ; 
thus  a  Wakatimi  man  may  take  a  wife  from  Obota 
or  Periepia,  and  a  Parimau  man  from  Kamura.  There 
were  two  women  at  Parimau  who  were  said  to  come 
from  Wakatimi,  but  whether  they  had  been  voluntarily 
exchanged  or  were  the  spoils  of  war  we  were  not  told. 

It  was  unfortunate  that  we  learnt  nothing  about 
the  customs  and  ceremonies  connected  with  marriage. 
A  wedding  took  place  at  Wakatimi  when  we  all 
happened  to  be  absent,  and  the  only  definite  descrip- 
tion that  we  were  able  to  get  of  it  was  that  the  bride, 
who  arrived  from  another  village  by  canoe,  crawled 
on  her  hands  and  knees  from  the  water's  edge  to  the 
village,  a  distance  of  about  a  hundred  yards,  and  most 
of  it  through  mud. 

Beyond  question,  the  happiest  time  in  the  Hves  of 
the  Papuans  is  their  childhood,  when  they  are  free  to 
play  from  morning  to  night  and  need  not  take  part 


GAMES   OF  THE  CHILDREN  117 

in  the  ceaseless  search  for  food,  which  occupies  so  much 
of  the  time  of  their  elders.  As  infants  they  are  carried 
on  the  backs  of  their  mothers  and  very  often  of  their 
fathers,  secured  by  a  wide  strap  of  bark  cloth,  the  ends 
of  which  are  tied  across  the  carrier's  chest.  It  is 
very  seldom  that  you  hear  them  cry  and  they  appear 
to  give  very  little  trouble ;  their  mothers  are  very 
careful  of  the  cleanliness  of  the  infants.  Very  early 
in  life  they  begin  to  walk  and  almost  as  soon  they  learn 
to  swim.  In  fine  weather  they  often  spend  the  greater 
part  of  the  day  in  the  river  and  it  is  a  very  pretty  sight 
to  see  a  crowd  of  little  Papuans  playing  together  in 
the  water.  Sometimes  they  are  joined  by  the  women, 
who  seem  to  enjoy  the  fun  quite  as  much  as  the 
children.  One  of  their  favourite  games  is  to  pretend 
to  be  a  school  of  porpoises,  whose  rolHng  headers  they 
imitate  admirably.  They  very  soon  become  powerful 
swimmers,  and  I  remember  one  day  seeing  a  small  boy, 
who  cannot  have  been  more  than  eight  years  old,  swim 
across  a  river  in  tremendous  flood,  while  the  party 
of  men  who  were  with  him  had  to  seek  a  place  where 
they  could  safely  swim  across  half  a  mile  lower  down. 

There  are  a  number  of  games  too  that  they  play 
on  dry  land  :  they  play  the  universal  game  of  lying 
in  wait  for  your  enemy  and  suddenly  pouncing  out  on 
him  ;  they  have  great  battles  in  which  they  are  armed 
with  miniature  bows  and  arrows,  and  reed  stems  take 
the  place  of  spears,  and  shrill  yells  make  up  for  the 
lack  of  bloodshed.  There  is  another  game  which  I  saw 
played  three  or  four  times  in  exactly  the  same  manner, 
and   which,    by   reason   of   it   somewhat   resembling   a 


ii8  PYGMIES  AND  PAPUANS 

children's  game  called  "  Nuts  in  May,"  is  perhaps  worth 
describing.  Eight  little  boys,  each  one  carrying  a  long 
flowering  grass,  stood  in  two  parties  of  four  facing  each 
other  a  few  yards  apart.  At  first  they  waved  their 
grasses  and  then  danced  towards  each  other,  crossed 
and  took  the  places  that  had  been  opposite  to  them  ; 
this  they  repeated  twice.  Then  they  ran  round  and 
round  in  a  circle  about  five  yards  wide  waving  their 
grasses  and  shouting  until  they  stopped  suddenly  and 
sat  down  in  a  bunch  together.  After  a  rest  of  about 
half  a  minute,  they  jumped  up  and  ran  round  again 
in  the  same  circle,  now  shouting  and  grabbing  as  they 
ran  handsful  of  sand,  which  they  threw  over  their 
heads  into  the  air  or  between  their  legs  into  the  face 
of  the  one  behind  ;  then  a  sudden  stop  and  again  they 
all  sat  down  in  a  bunch.  After  this  they  jumped  up, 
ran  all  together  for  a  few  yards  shouting  loudly, 
hurled  all  their  grasses  as  high  into  the  air  as  they 
could,  and  the  game  was  ended. 

Like  the  children  of  more  civilised  races,  the  young 
Papuans  are  fond  of  imitating  their  elders.  The  boys 
like  to  be  seen  walking  about  with  men,  to  copy  their 
swaggering  walk,  and  to  sit  about  smoking  idly  and 
watch  the  women  at  work.  The  little  girls  sometimes 
contrive  to  make  grass  garments  like  those  worn  by 
the  women  ;  they  make  small  dolls'  houses  in  which 
they  themselves,  or  infants  still  smaller  than  they, 
are  the  dolls,  and  thc}^  like  to  be  seen  baling  out  the 
canoes  or  carrying  sand  for  the  houses.  But  in  their 
case  pretence  is  soon  changed  to  reality,  and  when  they 
are   quite   3'oung   they   are   made   to   accompany   their 


THE  BUSINESS   OF  LIFE  119 

mothers  in  the  serious  business  of  hfe,  while  the  boys 
are  still  leading  a  gay  life  with  no  responsibilities. 
Both  boys  and  girls  very  early  become  proficient  in  the 
management  of  canoes,  and  a  child  of  tender  years 
will  confidently  steer  a  canoe  through  rough  water 
which  would  end  in  certain  shipwreck  for  one  of  us.      _ 

The  chief  business  in  the  lives  of  the  Papuans  is 
that  of  all  animals,  human  and  others,  namely,  the 
search  for  food.  But  while  the  civilised  races  have 
learnt  to  foresee  wants  of  the  future,  and  have 
established  a  system  of  agriculture  which  provides 
food  for  everybody  and  leaves  a  part  of  the  population 
free  to  pursue  other  occupations,  the  Papuans  take 
no  thought  for  the  morrow,  and  the  search  for  food 
becomes  literally  a  hand  to  mouth  business,  which 
occupies  the  attentions  of  every  member  of  the  com- 
munity. — 

They  have  no  cultivation  in  the  Mimika  villages, 
and  even  at  those  places  such  as  Obota  (see  p.  88) 
where  there  is  some  cultivation,  the  crops  that  they 
raise  are  not  nearly  sufficient  for  the  whole  population, 
so  it  can  easily  be  imagined  that  an  improvident  people 
living  in  a  country  constantly  liable  to  sudden  floods, 
which  swamp  the  land  for  weeks  at  a  time,  is  frequently 
faced  with  a  prospect  of  complete  starvation.  At 
first  you  are  inclined  to  think  that  the  whole  of  the 
business  of  collecting  food  falls  on  the  shoulders  of 
the  women,  while  the  men  sit  at  home  and  do  nothing. 
This  is  certainly  true  of  a  great  many  days  in  the  year, 
but  certain  tasks  can  only  be  performed  by  the  men, 
such   as  hunting  for  game   in   the   jungle,   and   fehing 


120  PYGMIES  AND   PAPUANS 

trees  to  make  the  canoes,  without  which  the  people 
must  inevitably  starve. 

Their  working  day  begins  fairly  early,  and  by  about 
eight  o'clock  the  village  is  almost  deserted  by  the 
women,  who  have  all  gone  off  in  canoes  to  fish  or  collect 
sago.  As  a  rule,  two  or  three  w^omen  go  in  each  canoe, 
taking  wdth  them  a  few  children,  a  dog  or  two,  several 
fishing  nets,  rolls  of  matting,  some  spears  and  arrows, 
a  little  food,  a  bamboo  filled  with  fresh  water,  if  they 
are  going  down  to  the  river  mouth,  and  always  a  fire 
burning  in  the  stern  of  the  boat.  The  usual  destina- 
tion of  the  women  is  the  muddy  creeks  among  the 
mangrove  swamps  not  far  from  the  sea  ;  there  where 
the  water  is  brackish  and  the  tide  rises  and  falls  several 
feet  they  find  in  the  mud  banks  large  mussels 
-^  (Cyrena  sp.),  which  contain  a  good  deal  of  food,  and 
the  shells  of  which  are  useful  as  knives  and  scrapers. 
Hopping  all  over  the  mud  are  seen  hundreds  of  curious 
;^  little  fish  (Periophthalmus  sp.),  whose  eyes  seem  to  be 
starting  out  of  their  heads  ;  these  little  creatures  climb 
up  the  steepest  mud  banks,  and  even  up  the  stumps  of 
trees. 

The  commonest  type  of  fishing  net  is  made  in  an  oval 
framework  of  wood,  or  strips  of  rattan,  about  5  feet  long 
by  2  feet  wide  ;  the  net  is  a  close  mesh  of  native  string 
stretched  tightly  across  the  frame,  except  at  the  middle, 
where  it  sags  a  little.  The  usual  method  of  using  this 
kind  of  net  is  to  grasp  it  at  both  ends  and  by  wading 
through  the  shallow  water  to  scoop  up  small  fish  much 
in  the  same  way  as  shrimps  are  caught.  There  is 
another   more   ingenious    method    of    using   it,    which 


FISHING  121 

sometimes  results  in  large  capture  of  little  fish.  When 
the  tide  is  high  the  bushes  along  the  river  bank  and  many 
of  the  drooping  branches  of  the  trees  are  submerged  ; 
the  natives  approach  quietly  in  their  canoes,  cautiously 
push  the  net  under  the  submerged  vegetation,  and  then 
with  a  sudden  jerk  lift  it  up  out  of  the  water,  in  this  w^ay 
capturing  numbers  of  small  fish  which  had  been  sheltering 
or  looking  for  food  among  the  leaves. 

Another  form  of  fishing  net — though  there  is  no 
netting  in  its  construction — is  made  of  long,  thin  strips 
of  bamboo  tied  parallel  to  each  other  at  intervals  of 
about  half  an  inch,  forming  a  sort  of  screen  or  trellis- 
work,  which  can  be  rolled  up  if  necessary.  Strong 
wooden  stakes  are  driven  into  the  mud  at  the  mouth 
of  the  creeks  w-hich  join  the  river  in  many  places,  and 
at  high  water  the  screens  are  fastened  to  the  stakes 
in  such  a  way  as  to  touch  the  bottom  and  close  the 
entrance  of  the  creek  ;  the  water  can  run  back  when 
the  tide  falls,  but  not  the  fish  which  are  sometimes 
caught  in  considerable  numbers. 

The  larger  fish  are  all  obtained  by  the  men,  who  /" 
either  catch  them  with  a  hook  and  line,  or  spear  them 
in  the  shallow  water  near  the  river  mouth,  or  along  the 
sea  shore.  We  saw  very  few  hooks  ;  one  or  two  were 
made  of  rough  metal,  the  others  were  neatly  fashioned 
from  fish  bones,  and  all  of  them  were  plain  without 
barbs.  Now  they  have  a  large  number  of  steel  fish- 
hooks, which  they  greatly  value. 

The  commonest  types  of  fish-spear  are  made  of 
thin  bamboo  or  a  light  wood  about  ten  feet  long,  and 
they  end  in  three  or  four  sharp  prongs  of  bamboo  or 


122  PYGMIES  AND   PAPUANS 

hardened  wood.  They  also  use  a  barbed  spear  of  which 
the  head  becomes  detached  from  the  shaft,  when  it 
becomes  fixed  in  a  fish  ;  a  hght  Hne  connecting  the  shaft 
with  the  head  causes  the  shaft  to  act  as  a  drag  on 
the  movements  of  the  fish,  which  can  easily  be  followed  ^ 
up  and  killed  ;  this  kind  of  spear  is  only  used  for  the 
larger  fish,  saw-fish  and  the  like,  but  I  never  saw  it  in 
use.  Considering  the  enormous  number  of  fish  that 
there  are — at  the  mouth  of  the  river  the  water  is  some- 
times seen  to  be  seething  with  large  fish — it  cannot 
be  said  that  the  men  are  very  clever  with  their  spears. 

They  also  shoot  fish,  using  single-  or  three-pointed 
arrows  ;  you  may  see  a  man  standing  quietly  in  a  pool 
of  water  like  a  heron  waiting  for  the  fish  to  come  up  to 
him,  or  stalking  a  shoal  of  fish  stealthily  from  the 
bank  ;  in  either  case  he  will  probably  shoot  arrow  after 
arrow  without  effect,  for  they  are  absurdly  indifferent 
marksmen  with  the  bow. 

The  most  primitive  methods  of  all  of  catching  fish 
I  saw  practised  one  day  coming  down  from  Obota. 
A  native  paddling  in  the  bow  of  my  canoe  saw  a  large 
fish  near  the  bank,  towards  which  he  steered  the  canoe. 
When  he  judged  that  he  was  near  enough  to  it,  he 
hurled  himself  flat  on  to  the  water  with  a  resounding 
splash  that  drenched  everything  in  the  boat,  and  a 
thud  that  would  have  stunned  the  fish  at  once  had  it 
not  darted  off  an  instant  earlier. 
.,  The  sight  of  a  fish,  however  small  it  is,  always 
^  rouses  a  Papuan  to  action.  When  we  were  travelling 
with  natives,  we  sometimes  came  to  pools  where  small 
fish  had  been  left  by  some  receding  flood.     Instantly 


FISHING  123 

their  loads  were  thrown  down  and  everyone  darted 
into  the  water  with  sticks  and  stones  and  shouts  and 
as  much  enthusiasm  as  if  the  fish  had  been  sahnon 
and  a  full  meal  for  ever3^one. 

There  is  another  method  of  fishing  which  was  observed 
by  the  navigator,  Captain  Dampier,  in  use  by  the  natives 
of  this  region.  It  is  so  remaikable  that,  although  we 
did  not  see  it  employed  by  the  people  of  the  Mimika 
district,  I  shall  make  no  excuse  for  repeating  it  here : — 

"  They  strike  Fish  very  ingeniously  with  Wooden 
"  Fiss-gigs  and  have  a  very  ingenious  way  of  making 
**  the  Fish  rise  :  For  they  have  a  piece  of  Wood  curiously 
"  carv'd  and  painted  much  like  a  Dolphin  (and  perhaps 
"  other  Figures  ;)  these  they  let  down  into  the  Water 
"  by  a  Line  with  a  small  weight  to  sink  it  ;  when  they 
"  think  it  low  enough,  they  haul  the  Line  into  their 
*'  Boats  very  fast,  and  the  Fish  rise  up  after  this  Figure  ; 
*'  and  they  stand  ready  to  strike  them  when  they  are 
"  near  the  Surface  of  the  Water."  * 

There  are  times  when  the  natives  get  more  fish 
than  they  know  what  to  do  with,  and  other  times  when 
no  fish  can  be  caught ;  but  they  have  no  idea  of  laying 
up  a  store  for  the  lean  times.  It  is  true  that  they  char 
some  in  the  fire  and  keep  them  for  a  few  days  before 
the  fish  putrify,  but  if  they  learnt  to  smoke  some  of  their 
surplus  supply,  they  need  never  go  hungry. 

*  A  Continuation  of  a  Voyage  to  New  Holland,  etc.,  in  the  year  1699, 
by  Captain  William  Dampier. 


CHAPTER  X 

Food  of  the  Papuans— Cassowaries— The  Native  Dog— Question  of 
Cannibalism— Village  Headman— The  Social  System  of  the 
Papuans— The  Family— Treatment  of  W omen— Religion— W eather 
Superstitions— Ceremony  to  avert  a  Flood— The  Pig— A  Village 
Festival— Wailing  at  Deaths — Methods  of  Disposal  of  the  Dead— No 
Reverence  for  the  Remains — Purchasing  Skulls. 

The  search  for  food  furnishes  occasionally  some  very 
curious  scenes.  One  of  the  most  remarkable  occurs  when 
the  river  in  flood  brings  down  a  tree-trunk  in  a  suitable 
stage  of  decay.  A  canoe  is  sent  out  with  men  to  secure 
it  and  tow  it  to  the  bank.  When  it  has  been  left  stranded 
by  the  falling  water,  the  people,  men,  women  and  children 
come  out  and  swarm  around  it  like  bees  about  a  honey-pot, 
and  you  wonder  what  they  can  be  doing.  When  you  go 
close  you  find  that  some  are  splitting  up  the  log  with  their 
stone  axes  and  others  are  cutting  up  the  fragments  with 
sharpened  shells  in  the  same  way  that  their  ancestors — 
and  perhaps  ours  too— did  centuries  ago.  The  objects  of 
their  search  are  the  large  white  larvcB  of  a  beetle,  about 
the  size  of  a  man's  thumb  ;  I  have  seen  natives  eat  them 
just  as  they  cut  them  out  of  the  wood,  but  usually  they 
roast  them  in  the  fire  and  consider  them  a  great  delicacy. 
Nothing  that  can  by  any  means  be  considered  eatable 
comes  amiss  to  the  Papuans  ;  there  are  two  kinds  of 
water  tortoises  which  they  like  to  eat,  and  rats,  lizards, 
frogs  and  snakes,  and  the  eggs  of  crocodiles  they  devour 


FOOD  OF  THE  NATIVES  125 

greedily.  A  number  of  different  kinds  of  fruits,  most  of 
them  disagreeable  to  European  tastes,  are  found  growing 
in  the  jungle  and  form  a  welcome  addition  to  their  fare. 
Birds  they  get  occasionally,  but  their  skill  with  the  bow 
and  arrow  is  not  remarkable. 

Most  of  their  meat  is  obtained  by  hunting  with  dogs 
the  wild  pig,  the  wallaby  and  the  cassowar\/.  The  pig 
{Sics  papuensis),  though  it  is  not  really  a  native  of  New 
Guinea,  was  introduced  into  the  island  so  long  ago  that 
it  has  become  as  well  established  as  the  rabbit  has  become 
in  this  country.  In  some  places,  particularly  near  the 
foot  of  the  mountains,  pigs  are  fairly  numerous,  and  the 
natives  kill  a  good  many  ;  they  are  very  savage  beasts, 
and  I  saw  a  native  terribly  gashed  by  a  large  boar,  which 
was  shortly  afterwards  shot  by  one  of  our  Gurkhas. 

The  Wallaby  (Dorcopsis  lorentzii)  is  a  small  kangaroo, 
about  two  feet  in  height  when  it  stands  upright ;  it  seems 
to  be  fairly  evenly  distributed  all  over  the  district.  When 
the  natives  bestir  themselves  they  seem  to  be  able  to  catch 
the  waHaby  fairly  easily  ;  in  four  consecutive  days  we 
saw  the  remains  of  thirteen  brought  into  the  village  of 
Parimau.  The  flesh  is  coarse  and  has  a  very  strong  musky 
flavour. 

There  are  two  kinds  of  Cassowary  in  the  Mimika  dis- 
trict, a  small  species  new  to  science  {Casuarius  claudi), 
which  w^as  discovered  in  the  mountains  at  an  altitude  of 
about  1500  feet,  and  a  large  species  {Casuarius  sclateri), 
which  was  fairly  abundant  everywhere.  We  frequently 
heard  their  curious  booming  cry  at  night  and  we  often  saw 
their  tracks  in  the  mud  of  the  jungle  or  on  the  river  bank, 
but  they  are  very  shy  birds  and  are  seldom  seen. 


'/- 


4> 


Oob^^ 


126  PYGMIES  AND   PAPUANS 

Once  I  had  the  hick  to  see  an  old  cassowary  with 
two  young  birds  walking  about  in  a  stony  river  bed, 
a  place  which  they  particularly  affect,  and  it  was  a  very 
pretty  sight  to  see  how  the  mother  bird,  after  she  had 
caught  sight  of  me,  drove  away  the  chicks  to  a  place 
of  safety  and  all  the  time  kept  herself  between  them 
and  me.  The  natives  hunt  and  kill  and  eat  a  good 
many  cassowaries  ;  the  feathers  are  used  for  ornamental 
head-dresses  and  belts  and  for  decorating  spears  and 
clubs,  and  the  claws  are  often  used  as  the  points  of 
arrows. 

The  Papuan  Dog,  without  whose  help  the  native 
would  seldom,  if  ever,  be  able  to  get  any  meat,  is  a 
sharp-nosed  prick-eared  creature  about  the  size  of  a 
Welsh  terrier.  The  colour  is  yellow,  brown  or  black, 
and  the  tail,  which  is  upstanding,  is  tipped  with  white. 
Usually  the  hair  is  short  and  smooth,  but  we  saw  one 
dog,  brought  down  to  Parimau  by  a  party  of  pygmies, 
which  had  a  thick  furry  coat  like  a  chow  dog,  which  it 
also  resembled  in  the  carriage  of  its  tail.  The  dogs 
in  the  village  of  the  pygmies  which  we  visited,  were 
smooth-coated  like  those  of  the  Papuans,  so  it  is 
possible  that  that  thick-coated  animal  came  from  some 
remote  district  where  the  natives  live  at  a  higher  altitude. 

The  Papuan  dogs  are  very  sociable  creatures,  and 
they  like  to  accompany  the  natives  on  their  journeys. 
They  are  particularly  fond  of  going  in  canoes  on  the 
river,  and  two  or  three  are  seen  in  nearly  every  canoe 
even  when  the  people  are  only  out  fishing.  Their 
food  is  generally  given  to  them  by  the  women  and  it 
consists  of  raw  meat,  when  there  is  any,  and  lumps 


THE   NATIVE  DOGS 


127 


of  sago,     A  remarkable  peculiarity  about  them  is  that 
they  never  bark,  but  they  make  up  for  this  defect  by 
their    extraordinary  power   of   howling.     Sometimes   in 
broad  da3'light,  if  there  was  no  wind,  but  more  often 
on  still  fine  nights,  a  party  of  dogs  would  sit  together, 
usually  on  the  river  bank,  and  utter  a  chorus  of  the 
most    piteous    and   blood-curdling   howls.     No    amount 
of  stone-throwing  or  beating  with  sticks,  freely  adminis- 
tered by  their  masters,  had  the  smallest  effect  on  them  ; 
they  would  only  move   away   a  few  yards  and  begin 
again,  apparently  carried  away  by  an  ecstasy  of  sorrow. 
The  natives  value  their  dogs  highly,   as  they  well 
may  do,  for  they  provide  the  whole  of  their  meat  supply, 
and  they  use  them  to  exchange  for  articles  of  which 
they  have  great  need.     The  people  at  Parimau  have  a 
small  piece  of    iron   about   the  size  of  a  chisel,   used 
for   carving   their   canoes   and   paddles,   for   which   the 
enormous  price  of  three  dogs  had  been  paid,  so  they 
informed    us,    to    the    people    of    the    Wakatimi.     One 
day  one  of  our  "  boys  "  shot  a  dog,  which  had  been 
in  the  habit  of  stealing  food  from  our  camp.     When 
the  natives  knew  that  it  was  dead,  all  the  people  of  the 
village  began  to  wail  in  the  same  manner  as  they  do 
when  a  person  dies,  and  the  owner  of  the  dog  smeared 
himself   with   mud   and   mourned   bitterly.     No   doubt 
the  display  was  somewhat  exaggerated  in  the  hope  of 
getting  a  compensation  from  us,  but  at  the  back  of  it 
there  was  genuine  emotion. 

Before  leaving  the  subject  of  the  food  of  the 
Papuans  and  their  means  of  obtaining  it,  a  word  must 
be  said  on  the  question  of  cannibalism.     It  is  popularly 


^    'i 


128  PYGMIES  AND   PAPUANS 

supposed  that  all  the  natives  of  New  Guinea  are 
cannibals,  and  fears  were  expressed  by  many  of  our 
friends  that  some,  if  not  all,  of  us  would  end  in  a  Papuan 
feast.  But  we  saw  no  signs  of  cannibalism,  and  we 
have  no  reason  to  suppose  that  it  is  practised  by  the 
people  of  the  Mimika  district.  Men  whom  we  questioned 
about  it  denied  it  and  showed  expressions  of  disgust 
at  the  suggestion  ;  but  that  is  not  a  complete  proof 
of  their  innocence,  for  I  have  known  people  elsewhere, 
who  were  undoubtedly  cannibals,  deny  it  in  the  same 
manner.  The  question  of  cannibahsm  is  always  diffi- 
cult to  decide  without  direct  evidence,  and  in  the  case 
of  these  Papuans  the  verdict  must  be  one  of  "  Not 
proven." 

The  account  given  in  a  preceding  chapter  of  the 
difficulties  we  experienced  in  learning  the  language  of 
the  Papuans  will  serve  to  explain  how  it  was  that  we 
learnt  so  little  about  the  nature  of  their  social  system. 
The  people  of  Wakatimi  were  called  Wakatimi-we 
(people  of  Wakatimi),  the  people  of  Obota  were 
Ohota-w'e,  and  the  people  of  other  villages  in  like  manner, 
but  we  never  heard  one  word  that  included  them  all, 
nor  indeed  do  we  know  whether  or  not  they  consider 
themselves  all  to  belong  to  the  same  tribe. 

In  every  village  that  we  visited  there  were  one  or 
two  or  even  more  men  who  called  themselves  natoo, 
a  word  signifying  "  chief."  But  in  no  case  did  the 
natoo  appear  to  have  any  authority  over  the  other 
people ;  their  houses  were  no  bigger  than  the  rest,  and 
(except  in  one  instance)  they  had  no  more  personal 
property  than  the  other  members  of  the  community. 


A    PAPUAN    OF    MIMIKA 


SOCIAL  SYSTEM   OF  THE   PAPUANS       129 

The  exceptional  case  was  a  man  of  unusual  intelligence 
who  became  our  intimate  friend  and  gave  us  much 
information  for  which  he  was  always  well  rewarded, 
so  that  before  we  left  the  country  his  house  was  filled 
with  tins  and  bottles,  and  he  was  the  possessor  of  axes 
and  knives,  3^ards  of  cloth  and  countless  beads.  In  all 
the  ordinary  affairs  of  hfe  the  "  chiefs "  and  their 
families  have  to  work  like  everybody  else,  but  it  is 
possible  that  in  their  wars,  of  which  we  saw  nothing 
at  all,  they  may  be  persons  of  more  consequence. 

Generally  speaking,  one  would  say  that  the  society 
of  the  Mimika  Papuans  is  a  group  of  small  families.     It 
cannot  by  any  means  be  described  as  a  socialistic  com- 
munity ;    with  one  exception  there  is  no  sign  of  com- 
munity of  property,  but  it  is  rather  a  case  of  every  man 
for  himself,   or   (more  accurately)    of  every  family  for 
itself,     A  canoe  belongs  to  the  family  of  the  man  who 
made  it  ;    the  coconut  trees,  which  grow  here  and  there 
along  the   lower   Mimika,    do   not   belong   to   the   com- 
munity  but   to   individuals,   presumably    the    men   or 
some  of  the  men  who  planted  them.     Sometimes  the 
trees  are  protected  by  a  fence,  a  very  flimsy  structure 
of  three  or  four  sticks,  placed  across  the  track  which 
leads  to  the  trees  ;    in  other  cases  a  few  palm  leaves  or 
some  pierced  shells  threaded  on  a  string  are  tied  round 
the   tree   itself ;     both   of   these   devices   appear   to   be 
enough  to  ensure  the  security  of  the  trees.     The  ex- 
ception mentioned  is  seen  when  game  is  brought  in  by 
the    hunters ;     the    meat,    as    I    observed    on    several 
occasions,  is  distributed  to  every  house  in  the  village. 
As  I  have  described   above  (p.  97)    the  houses  in  a 


130  PYGMIES  AND   PAPUANS 

village  are  joined  together  under  a  common  roof,  but 
each  family  enters  by  its  own  doorway,  and,  except 
for  the  publicity  resulting  from  the  lack  of  dividing 
walls  or  partitions,  it  finds  itself  in  its  own  private 
house.  It  is  difficult  to  say  exactly  of  what  the 
"  family-group  "  consists.  There  are  the  man  and  his 
wife  and  the  children,  and  sometimes  an  extra  man  or 
two,  and,  rarely,  an  extra  w'oman,  w^ho  is,  I  believe, 
always  a  second  wife  of  the  man  of  the  house  ;  but  the 
position  of  the  extra  men  and  their  relationship  to 
the  rest  of  the  family  I  cannot  define.  At  the  village 
of  Obota  a  detached  house,  rather  larger  than  the  rest, 
was  said  to  be  occupied  by  young  men  only  ;  we  did 
not  see  any  other  instance  of  this  elsewhere. 

Families  are  small,  as  might  be  expected  from  the 
severity  of  their  conditions  of  life  and  the  long  period 
of  suckling  by  the  mothers,  and  we  did  not  know 
definitely  of  any  couple  who  had  more  than  three  living 
children.  Though  the  women  do  a  large  amount  of 
the  work  of  the  community  the}/  are  not  mere  drudges ; 
they  do  a  great  deal  of  talking,  and  the  men  appear 
to  pay  considerable  respect  to  their  opinion.  This 
was  frequently  noticeable  when  we  wanted  to  buy 
something,  such  as  canoes,  from  a  native ;  he  would 
say  that  he  must  first  of  all  go  and  consult  his  wife, 
and  when  he  returned  it  often  happened  that,  prompted 
by  his  wife,  he  insisted  on  a  higher  payment  than  he 
had  asked  before. 

On  one  occasion  only  did  we  see  a  woman  ill-treated, 
and  the  performance  was  a  particularly  brutal  one. 
Two  men  and  a  woman  walked  down  from  the  village 


^v< 


<\r^<3  :^ 


PAPUAN   SUPERSTITIONS  131 

of  Wakatimi  to  the  river  bank,  dragging  another  woman, 
who  shrieked  and  struggled  violently.  After  throwing 
her  into  the  mud  they  dragged  her  into  the  shallow 
water  and  tried  to  drown  her  by  holding  her  down  under 
a  fishing-net.  We  shouted  at  them,  and  were  just  going 
with  some  soldiers  in  a  canoe  across  the  river  to  rescue 
the  woman,  when  they  desisted  and  allowed  the  poor 
creature  to  crawl  out  on  to  the  bank,  where  she  lay  for 
some  time  exhausted.  Some  natives  who  came  over  to 
us  shortly  afterwards  laughed  about  it  and  treated  the 
whole  affair  as  a  joke. 

With  regard  to  the  superstitions  and  beliefs  of  the 
Papuans,  owing  to  our  unfortunate  difficulties  with  the 
language    we    learnt    nothing    whatever.     Religion,    in 
the  accepted  sense  of  that  term,  I  am  sure  they  have 
not.     It  is  true  that  they  make  curious  carved  effigies,    / 
but  these  are  not  idols,  and  there  is  no  evidence  to  show 
that  they  ever  consult  or  worship  them  ;    on  the  con- 
trary/,   they    treat     them    with    contempt     and    often 
point   to   them   with   laughter.     These   images   are   in-  ^^  f^''^.^ 
geniously  and  skilfully  carved  out  of  wood,   and  they    •+^'^'i^^ 
represent  a  human  figure  always  grotesque  and  some-    t  ^^^^^^^^^ 
times  grossly"indecent.     They  vary  in  size  from  a  few   ^  ^ 
inches  to  twelve  or  fourteen  feet,  and  when  they  are  not 
neglected    they    are    ornamented    with    red    and    white  \^^^^^ 
paint  fo.^/rx 

We  had  opportunities  of  observing  the  outward 
signs  of  what  were  probably  superstitions  in  connection 
with  certain  phenomena  of  the  weather.  For  instance, 
the  first  peal  of  thunder  that  was  heard  in  the  day- 
it  occurred  almost  every  day — was  greeted  by  the  men 


132  PYGMIES  AND   PAPUANS 

with  a  long-drawn  tremulous  shout.  On  the  occasion 
of  a  particularly  alarming  thunderstorm,  when  the 
lightning  flashes  were  almost  unceasing,  the  men  came 
out  of  doors  and  with  long  sticks  beat  the  ground  in 
front  of  their  huts  ;  then  they  waved  the  sticks  in  the 
air,  shouting  loudly  meanwhile.  Curiously  enough  the 
rare  whistle  of  a  certain  bird,  which  we  never  identified, 
was  always  greeted  by  the  men  of  Parimau  with  a  shout 
precisely  similar  to  that  with  which  they  greet  the 
thunder. 

The  first  sight  of  the  new  moon  was  signalised  by  a 
short  sharp  bark  rather  than  a  shout.  Several  times 
on  the  day  following  the  first  sight  of  the  new  moon 
I  noticed  a  spear  decorated  with  white  feathers  exposed 
conspicuously  in  the  village,  but  whether  it  had  any 
connection  with  the  kalendar  I  cannot  say. 

When  the  first  drops  of  rain  of  the  day  began  to 
fall,  the  men  were  sometimes  seen  to  snap  their  fingers 
four  times  towards  the  four  quarters  of  the  compass. 

A  curious  ceremony  was  twice  observed  at  a  time 
of  heavy  rain,  when  the  Mimika  was  rising  rapidly  and 
threatening  to  sweep  away  the  village  of  Parimau.  A 
party  of  men  walked  down  to  the  edge  of  the  river, 
and  one  of  them  with  a  long  spear  threshed  the  water, 
while  the  others  at  each  stroke  shouted,  "  Mhu  "  (water, 
flood).  Then  they  went  up  to  the  village,  and  in  front 
of  each  door  they  dug  a  hole,  into  which  they  poured 
a  coconut-full  of  water  ;  again  they  shouted  "  Mhu," 
and  then  filled  up  the  hole  with  sand. 

That  they  have  some  belief  in  the  supernatural  is 
certain.     We  learnt  a  word  niniki,  which  undoubtedly 


PIGS  133 

means  ghosts  ;  they  described  niniki  as  things  which 
you  could  not  see  but  were  here  and  there  in  the  air 
about  you.  When  they  were  asked  where  a  dead  man 
had  gone  to,  they  talked  of  7tiniki,  and  pointed  vaguely 
to  the  horizon,  saying  the  word  which  means  "  far." 

If  there  is  one  thing  in  heaven  or  earth  to  which  it 
may  be  said  that  the  Papuans  pay  some  sort  of  respect    .         jl 
it  is  the  pig.     They  hunt  and  kill  a  good  many  wild  . 

pigs  in  the  jungle  and  eat  their  flesh,  but  the  lower  r^tj- 
jaw  of  each  animal  is  carefully  cleaned  and  hung  up 
on  a  sort  of  rack  in  front  of  the  houses  ;  on  one  of 
these  racks  I  counted  no  fewer  than  thirty-two  pigs' 
jaws.  The  grass  and  leaves  in  which  the  animal  is 
wrapped  and  the  ropes  used  for  tying  it  up  when  it  is 
carried  home  from  the  jungle,  are  not  thrown  away 
but  are  hung  up  on  a  similar  sort  of  rack  in  a  conspicuous 
place  in  the  village. 

In  every  village  there  may  generally  be  seen  two 
or  three  pigs  running  about  freely  ;    they  are  probably 
not  bred  in  the  village,  but  are  caught  in  the  jungle,    i^^^ 
when  they  are  young.     They  very  soon  become  quite    p  i  ^ 
tame    and  accompany  the  people  on   their   migrations   ^^^^ 
from  one  place  to  another  until  they  are  full  grown,  .^ly^^^ 
wh:eir''TEe}r" provide    food    for    a    festival.     The    only 
elaborate  popular  ceremony  that  took  place  while  we    ^    V 
were  in  the  country  happened  early  in  May  at  Parimau, 
and  the  principal  feature  of  it  was  the  slaughter  of  pigs. 
Unfortunately  for  me  I  was  at  the  base-camp  at  the 
time  and  did  not  see  the  festival,  so  I  will  make  extracts 
from  Marshall's  graphic  account.* 

*  Standard,  4,  8,  1910. 


134  PYGMIES  AND   PAPUANS 

"  Yesterday  the  natives  gave  us  an  excellent  show. 
For  some  days  previously  natives  had  been  arriving 
from  distant  parts  until  the  small  village  of  40  huts 
contained  400  people,  and  it  was  evident  from  the 
tomtomming  and  other  signs  that  something  of  im- 
portance was  about  to  take  place.  On  the  night  of 
the  3rd  inst.  they  lit  a  big  bonfire,  and  all  night  long 
they  were  howling  and  yeUing  as  if  to  drive  away  evil 
spirits.  Soon  after  daybreak  they  came  over  to  fetch 
us,  and,  expecting  something  unusual,  I  slipped  a  film 
into  my  cinematograph  camera  and  went  over.  They 
gave  me  every  opportunity  of  obtaining  a  good 
picture,  keeping  an  open  space  for  me  in  the  best 
positions.  First  of  all  the  women,  draped  in  leaves, 
slowly  walked  down  the  beach,  driving  two  full- 
grown  boars  in  front  of  them,  and  then  disappeared 
in  the  jungle.  About  150  men  with  faces  painted 
and  heads  and  spears  decorated  with  feathers,  formed 
up  in  three  sides  of  a  square,  one  end  of  which  was 
occupied  by  a  band  of  tomtoms.  A  slow  advance 
on  the  village  then  commenced,  the  men  shouting 
in  chorus  and  the  women  dancing  on  the  outskirts. 
The  centre  of  the  square  was  occupied  by  single 
individuals,  who,  following  each  other  in  quick 
succession,  gave  a  warlike  display,  finally  shooting 
arrows  far  over  the  trees. 

"  The  next  scene  took  place  around  a  large  sloping 
erection  which  we  soon  found  was  an  altar,  on  ^^'hich 
the  two  boars  were  about  to  be  sacrificed.  The 
women  and  boars  who  had  disappeared  into  the 
forest  now  marched  from  the  jungle  at  the  far  end  of 


A  TYPICAL  PAPUAN  OF  MIMIKA. 


A  VILLAGE  FESTIVAL  135 

the  village.  The  boars  were  seized,  and  a  struggle 
with  the  animals  ensued,  but  the  two  huge  brutes 
were  bound  up  with  rattan,  chalk  meanwhile  being 
rubbed  into  their  eyes,  apparently  in  order  to  blind 
them.  The  women  set  up  a  tremendous  wailing, 
and  appeared  on  the  scene  plastered  in  wet  mud  from 
head  to  foot.  The  two  boars,  on  each  of  which  a  man 
sat  astride,  were  now  hoisted  up  and  carried  to  the 
altar,  on  which  the  animals  were  tightly  lashed.  Then 
amid  much  shouting,  tomtomming,  and  fanatical 
displays,'  the  boars  were  clubbed  to  death.  As  soon 
as  life  was  extinct,  the  women  cut  the  carcases  free, 
and,  puUing  them  to  the  ground,  threw  themselves 
on  the  dead  bodies,  wailing  loudly,  and  plastering 
themselves  with  wet  mud  in  ecstasies  of  grief.  This 
continued  for  some  ten  minutes,  when  the  men,  many 
of  whom  were  covered  with  mud  and  uttered  strange 
dirges,  picked  up  the  bodies,  and  the  whole  assembly 
following  suit  marched  into  the  river,  where  a  much- 
needed  washing  took  place.  Just  previous  to  this 
a  three-year-old  child,  painted  red  and  crying  loudly, 
had  been  roughly  seized  and  dragged  towards  the 
dais,  and  for  a  moment  we  thought  something  more 
serious  than  a  boar  sacrifice  was  about  to  take  place. 
But  we  were  much  relieved  to  see  that  it  was  only 
having  its  ears  pierced.  The  whole  performance 
lasted  about  an  hour  and  a  half. 

"  The  afternoon  was  given  over  to  innocent  play, 
the  women  and  girls — many  of  them  quite  pretty — 
chasing  the  men  up  to  the  river  side  and  into  the 
water.     This  is  one  of  the  few  ceremonies  when  the 


136  PYGMIES  AND   PAPUANS 

"  women  are  allowed  to  beat  the  men,  the  latter  not 
"  bemg  permitted  to  retahate.  The  damsels  finally 
"  became  so  bold  that  they  stormed  the  camp." 

Of  ceremonies  connected  with  birth,  if  any  take 
place,  we  saw  nothing  at  all.  The  only  marriage 
ceremony  that  took  place  during  our  stay  in  the  country 
has  been  referred  to  on  a  preceding  page. 

Deaths  were  unfortunately  more  frequent,  and  if 
they  were  not  accompanied  by  any  elaborate  ceremonial 
they  were,  at  all  events,  widely  advertised,  sometimes 
indeed  even  before  the  event  itself.  A  wretched  man 
became  very  ill  at  Parimau  in  August,  and  it  was  soon 
evident  that  his  days  were  numbered.  Members  of 
his  family  carried  him  out  of  the  house  and  laid  him  in 
the  sunlight  for  a  time,  and  then  took  him  back  into  the 
house  again  at  least  half  a  dozen  times  a  day.  Now 
and  again,  when  he  dozed,  they  set  up  the  dreadful 
w^ail  that  is  customary  w^hen  a  person  dies,  and  he  had 
to  wake  up  and  assure  them  of  his  continued  life.  At 
night  his  hut  was  crowded  with  sympathetic  watchers, 
and  with  the  smoke  of  the  fire  and  much  tobacco  the 
atmosphere  must  have  been  nearly  insupportable.  As 
our  own  house  was  distant  only  about  forty  yards  across 
the  river  we  could  plainly  hear  his  laboured  breathing, 
and  when  it  grew  softer  they  wailed  again  until  the 
wonder  was  that  he  did  not  die.  On  the  third  day 
they  dug  a  grave  for  him,  but  still  he  lingered  on,  and 
it  was  not  until  the  fifth  night,  when  a  tremendous 
flood  came  down  and  swept  away  the  village  so  that 
all  the  people  had  to  take  refuge  in  their  canoes,  that  he 
died. 


WAILING   AT   DEATH  137 

When  a  death  occurs  the  people  in  the  hut  at  once 
begin  to  wail,  then  the  people  in  the  neighbouring  huts 
join  in  and  soon  the  whole  village  is  wailing.  It  is  a 
very  pecuUar  and  very  striking  chorus.  Each  indi- 
vidual wails  on  one  note,  and  as  there  are  perhaps  five 
notes  ranging  from  a  very  high  pitch  to  a  deep 
murmured  bass  being  sung  at  once,  the  effect  is  most 
mournful.  The  occasional  beat  of  a  drum  adds  not  a 
little  to  the  general  effect  of  lamentation.  It  must 
be  admitted,  however,  that  the  wailing  is  not  always 
a  musical  performance.  Sometimes  the  mourning  man 
behaves  in  the  way  that  a  child  does  when  it  is  described 
as  "  roaring  "  ;  he  puckers  up  his  face  in  the  most 
extraordinary  contortions,  "  roars "  at  the  top  of  his 
voice  with  occasional  heart-breaking  sobs,  while  the 
tears  course  down  his  face,  and  the  complete  picture 
is  ludicrous  in  the  extreme. 

The  disposal  of  the  dead  nearly  always  takes  place 
just  before  dawn,  but  the  method  of  it  is  not  always 
the  same.  The  most  common  practice  is  to  bury  the 
body  in  a  shallow  grave  dug  in  the  nearest  convenient 
spot,  sometimes  within  a  few  yards  of  the  huts.  The 
body  is  wrapped  in  mats  and  laid  flat  in  the  grave, 
which  is  then  filled  up,  and  its  place  is  perhaps  marked 
by  a  stick,  but  in  a  day  or  two  it  is  forgotten  and  people 
trample  on  it  without  heed. 

We  observed  one  instance  of  a  more  elaborate  kind 
of  burial.  The  corpse,  wrapped  in  leaves  and  mats, 
was  taken  out  into  the  jungle  and  placed  on  a  platform 
about  four  feet  high,  which  had  been  put  up  for  the 
purpose.     After  placing  the  body  on  the  platform  the 


138  PYGMIES  AND   PAPUANS 

men  who  had  carried  it  walked  down  to  the  river,  shouted 
once  in  unison,  and  then,  having  received  an  answering 
shout  from  the  men  in  the  village,  one  of  them  threw 
a  small  triangular  piece  of  wood  out  into  the  stream. 
In  the  meantime  the  famil}^  of  the  dead  man  dis- 
appeared into  the  jungle,  from  which  they  soon  emerged 
quite  naked,  plastered  all  over  with  mud  and  decorated 
with  wisps  of  climbing  plants.  The  next  two  days 
w^ere  spent  in  digging  a  grave  and  making  a  coffin 
shaped  like  a  small  canoe  ;  this  however  was  found 
to  be  too  small  and  was  not  used.  On  the  third  day 
the  body  was  placed  in  the  grave,  and  an  ornamental 
post  placed  in  the  ground  at  each  end,  but  contrary 
to  our  hopes  (for  the  state  of  that  man  was  becoming 
very  offensive)  they  did  not  fill  in  the  grave.  They 
merely  covered  the  body  wnth  leaves  and  turned  it 
over  every  day.  At  intervals  the  widow,  quite  naked, 
save  for  a  plastering  of  mud,  crawled  on  hands  and  knees 
from  her  hut,  which  was  less  than  five  yards  distant, 
and  visited  the  grave.  In  a  few  days  a  providential 
flood  came  and  filled  up  the  grave  and  put  an  end  to  what 
had  become  for  us  an  almost  intolerable  nuisance. 

Both  at  Wakatimi  and  at  Parimau  our  camp  com- 
manded a  good  view  of  the  native  village,  and  a  death 
always  provided  us  with  the  mild  excitement  of  wonder- 
ing in  what  new  way  they  would  celebrate  the  event. 
On  one  occasion  when  a  woman  died,  the  bereaved 
husband  and  another  man  walked  slowly  down  to  the  river 
and  waded  out  into  about  three  feet  of  water.  There 
the  widower  submitted  to  being  washed  all  over  by 
the  other  man  and  finally  to  being  held  under  water  by 


DISPOSAL    OF    IHK    DEAD.       A    COFFIN     O 


DISPOSAL  OF  THE   DEAD  139 

him  for  half  a  minute  or  more,  after  which  they  walked 
solemnly  back  to  the  village. 

Early  in  the  morning  of  the  day  after  the  death  of 
the  natoo  of  Wakatimi  all  the  women  and  girls  of  the 
viUage,  to  the  number  of  sixty  or  seventy,  came  down 
to  the  river,  all  of  them  without  a  vestige  of  clothing, 
and  in  the  shallow  water  a  foot  or  two  deep  they  swam 
and  crawled  and  wriggled  up  the  river  for  a  hundred 
yards  or  more,  waiUng  loudly  all  the  time.  Sometimes 
they  came  out  on  to  the  bank  and  rolled  in  the  mud, 
and  finally  they  all  went  out  of  the  water  and  stood 
wailing  in  front  of  the  dead  man's  house. 

Another  method  of  disposing  of  the  dead,  which  is 
very  frequently  adopted,  is  to  place  the  body  wrapped 
in  mats  in  a  rude  coffin,  which  is  usually  constructed 
from  pieces  of  broken  canoes.  The  coffin  containing 
the  body  is  supported  on  a  trestle  of  crossed  sticks  about 
four  feet  from  the  ground  (see  illustration  opposite), 
and  there  it  remains  until  decomposition  is  complete. 
As  these  coffins  are  often  placed  within  a  yard  or  two 
of  the  houses,  it  can  be  imagined  that  a  Papuan  village 
is  not  always  a  pleasant  place  to  visit. 

At  the  village  of  Nime  we  saw  two  or  three  pathetic 
little  bundles  containing  the  remains  of  infants  exposed 
on  racks  within  a  few  feet  of  the  houses,  from  which 
they  doubtless  came. 

When  decomposition  is  complete  no  account  is  taken 
of  the  bones,  excepting  the  skull,  which  is  taken  and 
preserved  in  the  house.  Sometimes  it  is  buried  in  the 
sand  of  the  floor  of  the  house,  and  sometimes  it  is  tied 
up  in  a  sort  of  open  basket-work  of  rattan  and  hung 


140  PYGMIES  AND   PAPUANS 

up  in  the  roof,  where  it  becomes  brown  with  smoke  and 
poHshed  by  frequent  handling. 

Though  the  people  take  the  trouble  to  bring  the 
skulls  into  their  houses,  they  show  no  real  respect  for 
them,  and  they  are  eager  enough  to  part  with  them  if  a 
chance  occurs.  Two  of  us  went  one  day  to  Obota,  a 
village  a  few  miles  from  Wakatimi,  in  the  hopes  of 
buying  some  bananas.  In  one  of  the  huts  we  saw  a  skull 
and  offered  to  buy  it,  not  at  all  expecting  that  the  owner 
w^ould  be  willing  to  sell,  but  the  offer  of  (I  think)  a  piece 
of  cloth  was  gladly  accepted  and  the  skull  was  ours. 
In  a  few  minutes,  when  it  became  known  that  we  had 
given  good  cloth  for  a  common  skull,  everybody  was 
anxious  to  sell  his  family  remains,  and  outside  every 
doorway  were  placed  one  or  two  or  even  three  grinning 
skulls.  They  do  not  treat  the  skulls  very  carefully, 
and  a  good  many  were  damaged,  so  we  only  bought 
about  half  a  dozen  that  were  perfect. 

One  day  a  man  walked  into  our  camp  at  Wakatimi 
carrying  a  skull  under  his  arm.  He  stood  outside  our 
house  for  some  time,  grinning  and  saying  nothing,  then 
he  gave  us  unmistakably  to  understand  that  it  was 
the  skull  of  his  wife,  who,  as  we  knew  for  a  fact,  had  only 
died  a  short  time  previously.  The  skull  was  indeed 
so  fresh  that  we  declined  the  offer. 


CHAPTER  XI 

Papuans'  Love  of  Music — Their  Concerts — A  Dancing  House — Carving 
—Papuans  as  Artists— Cat's  Cradle— Village  Squabbles— The  Part 
of  the  Women — Wooden  and  Stone  Clubs — Shell  Knives  and  Stone 
Axes — Bows  and  Arrows — Papuan  Marksmen — Spears — A  most 
Primitive  People — Disease — Prospects  of  their  Civilisation. 

The  most  pleasing  characteristic  of  the  Papuans  is  their 
love  of  music.  When  a  number  of  them  are  gathered 
together  and  when  they  have  eaten  well,  or  are  for  any 
other  reason  happy,  they  have  a  concert.  Sometimes 
the  concerts  take  place  in  the  afternoon  and  continue 
till  nightfall,  but  more  often  they  begin  after  dark  and 
go  on  almost  through  the  night.  The  orchestra  is  simple 
and  consists  of  two  or  three  men  who  beat  drums  and 
sit  before  a  small  fire  in  the  middle.  Round  them  are 
grouped  the  chorus  all  sitting  on  the  ground.  The 
drums  are  hollowed  cylinders  of  wood,  which  are  often 
elaborately  carved  ;  one  end  is  open,  the  other  is  closed 
by  a  piece  of  lizard's  or  snake's  skin  (see  illustration  p. 
142).  When  this  skin  becomes  slack,  as  it  very  quickly 
does,  the  drummer  holds  it  towards  the  fire  until  it 
regains  its  pitch.  It  is  not  the  custom  to  tune  up  both 
drums,  when  there  are  more  than  one,  to  the  same  pitch, 
usually  an  interval  of  about  half  a  tone  is  left  between 
them.  The  leader  of  the  orchestra  sometimes  wears  a 
remarkable  head-dress  made  of  plaited  fibre  and  orna- 
mented with  bunches  of  plumes  of  the  Bird  of  Paradise 


142  PYGMIES  AND   PAPUANS 

(see  illustration  p.  yS).  The  effect  of  these  plumes  wav- 
ing backwards  and  forwards  as  the  man  moves  his  head 
to  mark  the  phrases  of  the  song  is  exceedingly  striking, 
and  it  must  be  admitted  that  if  there  is  anybody,  who 
can  becomingly  wear  those  gorgeous  plumes,  it  is  the 
naked  black  man. 

The  most  usual  kind  of  song  begins  with  a  slow  tap- 
ping of   the  drums,  then  these  are  beaten  quicker  and 
the  singer  (one  of  the  drummers)  begins  a  sort  of  recita- 
tive song,  to  which  the  chorus  contributes  a  low  hum- 
ming accompaniment.     Then  the  drums  are  beaten  very 
loudly  and  rapidly,  all  the  men  in  chorus  sing,  or  rather 
growl,   a  deep  guttural  note,  fohowed  by  a  prolonged 
musical  note  at  about  the  middle  of  the  register  of  a 
normal  man's  voice,  and  the  song  ends  with  one  or  more 
short   sharp  barks,  ''  Wah  !   vvah  !  wah  !  "   with  a  loud 
drum  accompaniment.     The  song,  or  probabl}^  different 
verses  of   it,  is  repeated  very  many  times.     The   final 
shouts  of  the  song,  which  for  want  of  a  better  word  I 
have  called  "  barks,"   are  uttered  by  all   the   men  in 
unison  and  recall,  as  was  pointed  out  by  Mr.  Goodfellow, 
the  harsh  croaking  call  of  the  Greater  Bird  of  Paradise, 
which  is  heard  almost  daily  in  the  jungle.     It  is  possible 
that  the  song  is  in  some  way  connected  with  the  bird 
and  that  there  is  an  intentional  imitation  of  its  note. 

The  scheme  of  all  these  songs  is  the  same,  viz.,  a  reci- 
tative with  drums  and  a  humming  accompaniment,  but 
some  of  them  have  really  rollicking  choruses,  and  we 
used  to  listen  to  them  at  night  with  extreme  pleasure  as 
they  came,  somewhat  softened  by  distance,  over  the 
water  to  our  camp  at  Wakatimi.     The  voices  of  the  men 


.~.m 

I 


I.  Stone  Axe. 
2.  3.  4.   Head-rests  for  sleeping. 
5.  6.  7.   Drums. 


A   DANCING  HOUSE  143 

are  often  rich,  and  they  have  a  true  musical  car.  Their 
intervals  arc  very  similar  to  ours  and  not  at  all  like 
those  of  the  Malays  and  many  other  Eastern  singers, 
who  recognize  perhaps  five  notes  where  we  have  only 
two.  Beside  the  drum  the  only  instrument  of  music  they 
have  is  a  straight  trumpet  made  from  a  short  piece  of 
bamboo.  This  produces  only  a  single  booming  note  and 
is  not  used  at  the  concerts. 

As  an  amusement  of  the  Papuans  even  more  impor- 
tant than  singing  is  dancing,  of  which  they  often  talked, 
but  though  we  saw  some  of  their  dancing  halls  (see 
illustration  p.  48),  we  never  had  the  good  fortune  to 
witness  a  performance.  At  the  coast  village  of  Nimc,  a 
few  miles  to  the  East  of  the  Mimika  River,  there  was  a 
very  elaborate  dancing  house,  which  must  have  cost  an 
immense  amount  of  labour  to  build.  The  length  of  the 
house  from  front  to  back  was  about  100  feet,  the  width 
about  25  feet,  and  it  rested  on  poles  which  were  about 
8  feet  high  in  front,  rising  up  to  about  14  feet  high  at 
the  back.  The  side  walls  and  the  back  were  of  "  atap  " 
as  was  also  the  roof,  which  sloped  from  a  long  ridge- 
pole running  the  whole  length  of  the  house.  The  ridge- 
pole was  remarkable  as  being  made  from  a  single  tree 
trunk  [Casuarina)  shaved  down  very  smoothly  to  a  uni- 
form thickness  of  about  10  inches ;  the  ends  of  it,  which 
projected  about  8  feet  both  at  the  front  and  back  of 
the  house,  were  carved  in  very  lifelike  representations 
of  the  head  of  a  crocodile  and  were  painted  red.  The 
weight  of  the  beam  must  have  been  immense  and  one 
wondered  how  it  had  been  hoisted  into  position.  Be- 
tween the  ridge  of  the  roof  and  the  eaves  there  projected 


144  PYGMIES  AND   PAPUANS 

both  in  front  and  at  the  back  six  other  smaller  poles 
grotesquely  carved  to  represent   fish   and  reptiles   and 
hideous  human  heads.     The  front  of  the  house  was  open, 
and  when  you  had  climbed  up  the  supporting  poles  and 
had  stepped  over  a  low  fence  you  found  yourself  in  a 
spacious  hall  with  a  floor  well  made  of  sheets  of  bark, 
which  sloped  up  gradually  from  front  to  back.     Along 
either  side  at  regular  intervals  on  the  floor  were  sand 
fireplaces   and   above   these   were  wooden    racks,    from 
which  it  was  evident  that   something  was  hung  to  be 
cooked.     Round  the  walls  on  all  sides  was  a  strip  of 
carved  and  painted  wood,   and  exactly  in  the   middle 
of  the  hall,  fixed  to  the  floor  and  the  roof  were  two 
posts   about   3   feet   apart   and  tied  between  them,  at 
about  half   the  height   of  a   man,  was   an   elaborately 
carved  and   painted  board   about   twelve   inches   wide. 
In  the  middle  of  this  board  was  carved  the  eye,  which 
is  a  familiar  feature  of  the  ornamental  carving  on  the 
canoes  and  drums,  and  it  appeared  that  this  eye  is  the 
centre  of  the  ceremonies  which  take  place  in  the  house. 

So  far  as  I  could  understand  from  the  description  of 
the  natives  who  accompanied  me  in  my  visit  to  the 
house,  the  people,  both  men  and  women,  who  take 
part  in  the  ceremony,  dance  slowly  upwards  from  the 
front  of  the  house  singing  as  they  go,  and  when  they 
reach  the  carved  board  each  one  in  turn  touches  the 
eye,  while  all  the  people  shout  together.  But  what  the 
object  of  the  whole  performance  is  and  what  the  people 
cook  and  eat,  are  questions  to  which  I  was  unable  to 
find  an  answer. 

I  have  had  occasion  above  to  mention  the  artistic 


vO 


i»?%^ 


m(^&'- 


Ov        g 


PAPUAN  ARTISTS  145 

carvings  on  the  canoes  and  drums.  Their  paddles  too 
show  a  very  good  idea  of  design,  as  will  be  seen  from 
the  illustration  p.  144.  Nothing  amused  them  more 
than  to  be  provided  with  a  pencil  and  pieces  of  paper 
and  to  attempt  to  draw  figures.  Their  efforts  were  not 
always  very  successful,  and  some  of  the  drawings  which 
I  have  kept  would  be  quite  unrecognisable  for  what 
they  are,  if  I  had  not  labelled  them  at  the  time.  Like 
the  young  of  civilised  races  they  always  preferred  to 
draw  the  figures  of  men  and  women,  and  some  of  these 
are  remarkable  for  having  the  mouth  near  the  top  of 
the  head  above  the  level  of  the  eyes.  The  method  of 
drawing  is  very  simple ;  the  pencil  is  held  almost  upright 
on  the  paper  and  the  outline  of  the  figure,  begun  at 
an  arm  or  leg  or  anywhere  indifferently,  is  drawn  in 
one  continuous  stroke  without  removing  the  pencil 
from  the  paper.  The  end  is  always  rather  exciting, 
like  the  feat  of  drawing  a  pig  when  you  are  blindfolded, 
for  the  artist  is  never  quite  certain  of  finishing  at  the 
point  whence  he  started.  Besides  human  figures  they 
liked  drawing  dogs,  pigs,  birds  and  fishes.  Two  pictures 
of  a  dog  and  a  bird  both  done  by  the  same  man  are 
peculiarly  interesting,  because  they  were  both  drawn 
upside  down.  I  watched  the  man  making  the  drawings, 
and  when  they  were  finished  I  saw  that  the  legs  of  the 
creatures  were  uppermost ;  so  I  turned  the  papers  the 
right  way  round  and  handed  them  back  to  him,  but 
he  inverted  them  again  and  admired  them  in  that  position. 
Curiously  enough  the  same  man  drew  human  figures  in 
the  correct  attitude,  head  uppermost,  so  that  the  state 
of  his  mental  vision  offers  rather  a  puzzling  problem. 

L 


146 


PYGMIES  AND  PAPUANS 


a.  Cockatoo,        a^  b,  Designs  for  scarification.        b.  Hornbill. 
c.  Pig.        d.  Dog.        e.  Bird.       /,  Man.        g.  Woman. 


CAT'S  CRADLE  147 

Most  of  them  had  a  keen  appreciation  of  pictures 
and  they  were  surprisingly  quick  in  identifying  photo- 
graphs of  themselves ;  in  this  respect  they  showed  a 
good  deal  more  intelligence  than  some  of  our  Gurkhas, 
who  held  a  photograph  sideways  or  upside  down  and 
gazed  at  it  blankly,  as  if  they  had  not  the  faintest 
idea  of  what  it  portrayed.  The  illustrated  papers  were 
a  source  of  endless  delight  to  them,  and  the  portraits 
of  beautiful  ladies,  who  they  felt  sure  were  our  wives, 
were  greatly  admired.  Horses,  sheep,  cattle  and  all 
other  animals  were  declared  to  be  dogs. 

Another  amusement — it  can  hardly  be  called  an  art 
— of  the  Papuans  is  the  game  of  cat's  cradle,  at  which 
many  of  them  are  extraordinarily  proficient.  It  is  not, 
as  with  us,  a  game  played  by  two  persons ;  with  them 
the  part  of  the  second  person  is  performed  by  the 
player's  teeth,  and  he  contrives  to  produce  some  wonder- 
fully intricate  figures,  none  of  which,  I  regret  to  say, 
we  had  patience  or  skill  enough  to  learn.  The  most 
elaborate  figure  I  saw  was  supposed  to  represent  a  bird, 
and  when  the  features  of  it  had  been  pointed  out  some 
resemblance  was  certainly  apparent. 

But  it  must  be  admitted  that  their  amusements 
are  not  alwaj'^s  so  innocent  as  drawing  pictures  and 
playing  cat's  cradle.  I  have  referred  above  to  the 
gang  of  drunkards,  who  used  to  create  such  turmoil  at 
Wakatimi.  The  people  of  Parimau,  who  had  no  means 
of  getting  intoxicated,  were  just  as  quarrelsome  as  the 
Wakatimi  people,  and  fights  were  of  frequent,  almost 
daily  occurrence.  Some  one  does  something,  it  matters 
not  what,  to  offend  some  other  person,  and  in  an  instant 


148  PYGMIES  AND  PAPUANS 

the  village  is  in  an  uproar.  Spears  fly  through  the  air— 
we  never  saw  anybody  touched  by  one — and  stone  clubs 
are  brandished  furiously,  the  combatants  all  shout  horrible 
threats  at  the  tops  of  their  voices,  while  a  few  people 
look  on  stolidly  or  hardly  take  any  notice  at  all.  There 
seems  to  be  a  certain  etiquette  about  the  use  of  clubs, 
for  the  person  about  to  be  hit  generally  presents  a  soft 
part  of  his  person,  the  back  or  shoulders,  to  the  clubber, 
and  we  never  saw  a  man  intentionally  hit  another  on 
the  head,  a  blow  which  might  easily  be  fatal ;  but  blood 
flowed  in  plenty  from  the  flesh  wounds. 

The  part  of  the  women  in  these  village  squabbles  is 
always  to  scream  loudly  and  generally  to  begin  by  bang- 
ing the  houses  with  sticks  or  spears  and  to  end  with 
pulling  them  to  pieces.  In  a  fight  at  Wakatimi  we  saw 
a  party  of  infuriated  women  absolutely  demolish  three  or 
four  houses.  The  fights  end  almost  as  suddenly  as  they 
begin  and  in  a  short  time  the  village  settles  down  to  its 
usual  tranquillity.  Neither  the  sight  nor  the  sound  of 
these  village  quarrels  is  very  agreeable,  but  they  have  no 
regularly  organised  games  and,  at  the  worst,  not  a  ver\^ 
great  amount  of  damage  is  done. 

The  clubs  used  in  these  village  fights  and  doubtless 
also  in  their  tribal  wars — but  of  those  we  know  nothing — 
are  of  two  kinds,  wooden  and  stone-headed.  The  wooden 
clubs  are  about  four  feet  long  and  consist  of  a  plain  shaft, 
of  which  the  last  foot  or  rather  more  is  carved  into  a 
saw-like  cutting  edge ;  some  of  these  are  made  of  a 
very  heavy  wood  and  they  are  exceedingly  formidable 
weapons.  A  more  simple  type  of  wooden  club  is  a  plain 
wooden  shaft  rather  thinner  at  the  handle  end  than  at 


SPLITTING    WOOD    WITH    A.    STONE    AX  I 


i\^c>biT^ 


STONE  CLUBS  149 

the  other,  round  which  is  fixed  a  piece  of  shark's  skin  or 
the  prickly  skin  from  the  back  of  the  Sting  Ray  and 
often  with  it  is  tied  the  saw  of  a  small  Saw  fish ;  such 
a  club  appears  to  be  capable  of  inflicting  a  very  nasty 
wound.  7>r^ 

There  is  a  great  variety  of  stone-headed  clubs,  but  ^lv^^^ 
they  are  all  alike  in  being  furnished  wdth  a  wooden  shaft, 
which  is  usually  a  plain  piece  of  wood,  but  occasionally 
carved  near  the  club  end.  The  stone  head  is  pierced  in 
the  middle  by  a  round  hole  about  an  inch  in  diameter, 
through  which  the  shaft  is  passed  and  fixed  firmly  by 
wedges.  Most  of  the  heads  are  made  of  a  rather  soft 
limestone,  but  where  the  people  obtain  it  we  do  not 
know,  for  there  is  no  stone  of  any  kind  near  the  coast. 
The  simplest  type  is  merely  a  round  water-worn  pebble 
with  a  hole  bored  through  it.  More  commonly  they  are 
worked  and  the  labour  of  producing  them  must  have 
been  considerable.  Some  are  flat  discs  with  sharp  cutting 
edges  or  blunt  and  roughly  milled  edges,  and  some  are 
cut  into  the  form  of  five  or  six  or  more  pointed  stars ; 
rarely  they  are  triangular.  Others  again  are  round  or 
oval  and  are  cut  into  more  or  less  deep  teeth,  or  they 
have  small  bosses  left  projecting  here  and  there,  but  no 
two  of  them  are  exactly  ahke.  The  weight  of  the  club 
head  is  usually  two  or  three  pounds.  The  most  savage- 
looking  club  we  saw  was  simply  a  rough  lump  of  coral, 
not  trimmed  in  any  way.  It  was  pierced  and  mounted 
on  a  finely  carved  shaft  of  extremely  heavy  wood,  and 
the  whole  thing  must  have  weighed  fifteen  or  twenty 
pounds. 

Not  a  little  credit  is  due  to  the  Papuans  for  their 


150  PYGMIES  AND  PAPUANS 

industry  in  making  these  elaborate  weapons,  for  it  must 
be  remembered  that  until  we  visited  the  country  they  had 
no  metal  tools  whatever,  with  the  exception  of  two  or 
three  scraps  of  soft  iron,  and  all  their  work  was  done 
with  shell  knives  and  stone  axes.  The  knives  are  simply 
the  shells  of  a  common  freshwater  bivalve  (Cyrena  sp.) ; 
when  these  are  rubbed  down  on  a  stone,  they  take  on  an 
exceedingly  sharp  edge  and  are  used  by  the  natives  for 
carving  the  canoes  and  drums  and  sharpening  their  spears 
and  arrows. 

The  stone  axes  used  in  the  Mimika  district  are  all  of 
the  same  type,  though  they  vary  greatly  in  size  from 
about  four  inches  to  large  ones  of  nearly  twelve  inches  in 
length.  The  stone  of  which  they  are  made  is  always  the 
same,  a  quartzite.  The  shaft  is  about  two  feet  long  and 
is  invariably  made  of  the  butt  end  of  a  bamboo.  A  hole 
is  bored  and  burnt  in  the  lower  end  of  the  bamboo,  that 
is  to  say  in  the  solid  part  of  the  wood  below  the  first 
joint,  and  the  pointed  end  of  the  stone  is  jammed  into 
the  hole.  The  stone  is  always  fixed  axe-fashion,  i.e.  with 
its  broad  surface  and  cutting  edge  in  the  same  plane  with 
the  long  axis  of  the  handle,  and  not  adze-fashion,  as  is 
the  custom  in  some  other  parts  of  New  Guinea  (see 
illustration  p.  142).  The  axes  quickly  become  blunt 
with  use  and  they  are  sharpened  by  being  rubbed  upon 
another  stone.  At  Wakatimi  stones  are  very  rare  and 
one  man  appeared  to  be  the  stone-smith  of  the  village. 
I  remember  seeing  him  one  day  sitting  outside  his  hut 
sharpening  an  axe,  with  three  or  four  others  lying  beside 
him  waiting  to  be  done,  while  a  few  yards  away  a  woman 
was  splitting  a  log  of  wood  with  a  stone  axe.     It  struck 


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BOWS  AND  ARROWS  151 

me  as  being  one  of  the  most  primitive  scenes  I  had  ever 
witnessed,  really  a  glimpse  of  the  Stone  Age. 

The  bows  of  the  Mimika  natives  are  about  five  feet 
long  and  are  made  of  a  simple  straight  piece  of  a  very  hard 
wood  (usually  a  species  of  pandamis),  tapering  towards 
the  ends,  which  are  sometimes  ornamented  with  the  claw 
of  a  cassowary  or  a  tuft  of  feathers  and  shells  or  the 
claw  of  a  crab.  The  "  string  "  is  a  piece  of  rattan  and  it 
requires  a  strong  arm  to  bend  the  bow.  The  arrows  are 
of  various  types  (see  illustration  p.  150)  ;  they  are  all 
made  of  reed  stems,  and  none  are  ever  feathered  nor  have 
they  nocks.  They  vary  only  in  their  points,  which  are 
sometimes  merely  the  sharpened  end  of  the  reeds  them- 
selves and  sometimes  a  plain  sharpened  tip  of  hard  wood 
or  bamboo.  Some  are  tipped  with  the  sharpened  claw  of 
a  cassowary  or  with  the  spine  that  lies  along  the  back 
of  the  Sting  Ray,  and  the  arrows  used  for  shooting  fish 
have  often  three  points  of  sharp  bamboo. 

Most  people  have  the  idea  that  the  savage  man 
performs  prodigies  of  skill  with  his  bow  and  arrows,  but 
whenever  I  saw  the  Papuans  shooting,  they  made 
astonishingly  bad  practice.  I  remember  seeing  two 
Papuans  trying  to  kill  an  iguana  in  a  tree  not  more  than 
twenty  feet  above  the  ground ;  they  shot  arrow  after 
arrow  at  it,  but  the  creature,  which  was  as  long  and 
almost  as  thick  as  a  man's  arm,  climbed  slowly  up  from 
branch  to  branch  until  it  was  lost  to  view. 

The  hunting  spears  are  of  two  kinds,  a  plain  straight 
shaft  of  heavy  wood,  very  sharp  and  hardened  by  fire  at 
the  tip ;  and  a  straight  shaft  of  a  lighter  wood,  to  the  end 
of  which  is  fixed  part  of  a  straight  bone  (generally  the 


-^ 


152  PYGMIES  AND   PAPUANS 

tibia)  of  a  pig,  sharpened  to  a  fine  point.  There  is 
another  kind  of  spear  made  of  a  soft  wood,  finely  pointed 
and  with  a  wide  blade  carved  in  a  sort  of  open-work 
fashion  (see  illustration  p.  150)  ;  the  blade  and  the  point 
are  painted  red  with  clay  and  the  shaft  is  generally 
decorated  with  feathers  or  plaited  fibre.  Spears  of  this 
sort  are  of  no  use  in  hunting  but  are  employed  at  dances 
and  other  ceremonial  functions. 

Two  more  pieces  of  furniture,  the  head-rest  and  the 
sago  bowl,  complete  the  list  of  articles  made  by  the 
Papuans.  The  head-rests,  which  were  seen  only  in  the 
villages  of  Obota  and  Nime,  are  made  of  a  strip  of 
elaborately  carved  wood  four  or  five  inches  wide  and 
y  between  two  and  three  feet  in  length,  and  are  supported 
at  each  end  by  a  stout  wooden  prop,  which  raises  the 
head-rest  about  four  inches  above  the  ground.  The 
longer  head-rests  are  supposed  to  support  the  heads  of 
two  sleeping  persons. 

Fire  is  nearly  always  taken  by  the  Papuans  wherever 
they  go ;  in  almost  every  canoe  a  fire  is  kept  burn- 
ing, and  when  they  travel  through  the  jungle  the  men 
carry  a  smouldering  stick.  There  must  be  occasions 
when  all  these  fires  are  extinguished,  but  how  they  pro- 
duce them  we  were  unable  to  learn ;  the  Papuans  of 
Parimau  could  not  make  fire  with  the  friction  stick  and 
rattan  used  by  their  neighbours,  the  Tapiro  Pygmies. 

From  the  description  of  them  which  has  been  given  in 
this  and  the  two  preceding  chapters  it  will  be  seen  that 
the  conditions  of  life  of  the  Papuans  are  as^  primitive  as 
those  of  any  people  now  living  in  the  world.  There  are 
very  few  other  places,  where  you  can  find  a  people  who 


STRUGGLE  FOR  EXISTENCE  153 

neither  make  nor  possess  an}^  metal  and  who  have  no 
knowledge  of  pottery.  The  only  vessels  that  they  have 
for  holding  water  are  scraped-out  coconuts  and  simple 
pieces  of  bamboo.  Water  boiling  they  had  never  seen 
before  we  came  among  them.  Their  implements  and 
weapons  are,  as  I  have  shown,  of  the  most  primitive 
kind,  and  their  ornaments  are  of  the  rudest  possible 
description. 

Cultivation  of  the  soil  is  only  practised  by  the  people 
of  one  or  two  villages,  and  even  then  it  produces  but  a 
very  small  proportion  of  their  food,  so  it  follows  that 
most  of  their  time  and  energies  are  devoted  to  procuring 
the  necessaries  of  life. 

The  struggle  for  existence  is  keen  enough,  the  birth- 
rate is  low  and  the  rate  of  infant  mortality  is,  I  believe, 
very  high.  Nor  do  diseases  spare  them ;  syphilis  is 
exceedingly  prevalent,  and  was  probably  introduced  by 
Chinese  and  Malay  traders  to  the  West  end  of  the  island, 
whence  it  has  spread  along  the  coast.  Tuberculosis  is 
happily  absent,  but  two  natives  of  Wakatimi  were  suffer- 
ing from  what  appeared  to  be  certainly  leprosy.  Skin 
diseases,  notabh"  tinea  imbricata,  are  very  common ;  and 
almost  every  person  appears  to  suffer  occasionally  from 
fever  of  one  sort  or  another. 

But  in  spite  of  all  these  drawbacks  the  Papuans  of  the 
Mimika  are  not  such  a  very  miserable  people.  They  are 
strong,  those  of  them  that  survive  the  ordeals  of  infancy 
and  sickness ;  they  have  food  in  plenty  to  eat,  if  they 
choose  to  exert  themselves  sufficiently  to  obtain  it ;  they 
have  their  amusements,  songs  and  dances ;  and  the  manner 
of  their  lives  is  suited  to  the  conditions  of  the  country 


154  PYGMIES  AND   PAPUANS 

in  which  they  Hve.  It  is  this  last  consideration  which 
ought  ultimately  to  determine  their  fate  :  they  live  in  a 
wretchedly  poor  country  which  is  constantly  liable  to 
devastating  floods,  and  their  habit  of  wandering  from 
one  place  to  another,  where  food  may  be  obtained,  is  the 
only  way  of  life  suitable  to  the  physical  and  climatic 
conditions  of  the  country. 

Any  attempt  to  "civilise"  them  must  inevitably 
destroy  their  primitive  independence,  and  if  it  succeeded 
in  establishing  the  people  in  settled  communities  it  would 
reduce  them  at  many  seasons  to  absolute  starvation. 
We  were  visited  once  by  the  Director  of  the  Sacred  Heart 
Mission  at  Toeal,  which  has  done  admirable  work  amongst 
the  natives  of  the  Ke  Islands  and  at  one  or  two  places 
in  New  Guinea  itself.  When  he  had  seen  the  people  and 
the  nature  of  the  country  and  had  been  told  something 
of  their  habits,  he  decided  that  the  Mimika  was  not,  at 
present  at  all  events,  a  proper  field  for  missionary  enter- 
prise. Setting  aside  all  other  considerations,  one  dares 
to  hope  that  such  an  interesting  people  may  for  a  long 
time  be  left  undisturbed ;  they  do  no  harm  to  their 
neighbours  and  the  effects  on  them  of  civilising  influences 
would  be  at  the  best  uncertain. 


CHAPTER  XII 

The  Camp  at  Parimau—A  Plague  of  Beetles— First  Discovery  of  the 
Tapiro  Pygmies— Papuans  as  Carriers— We  visit  the  Clearing  of 
the  Tapiro— Remarkable  Clothing  of  Tapiro— Our  Relations  with 
the  Natives— System  of  Payment— Their  Confidence  in  Us— 
Occasional  Thefts— A  Customary  Peace-offering— Papuans  as 
Naturalists. 

While  it  was  the  business  of  some  of  us  during  the 
early  months  of  the  expedition  to  stop  at  the  base-camp 
and  despatch  canoes  laden  with  stores  up  the  river, 
others  remained  at  Parimau  to  estabhsh  there  a  second 
permanent  camp  and  to  find,  if  possible,  a  way  of 
approaching  the  higher  mountains.  It  should  be  said 
that  Parimau  is  some  distance  from  the  mountains— the 
high  point  nearest  to  it,  Mount  Tapiro  (7660  ft.)  is  some 
twelve  miles  to  the  North,  but  it  was  no  longer  possible 
to  travel  in  the  direction  of  the  mountains  by  way  of 
the  Mimika  River,  which  had  dwindled  to  a  very  small 
size  at  Parimau,  therefore  it  was  necessary  to  find  a 
new  route  from  there  onward. 

The  first  camp  at  Parimau  was  made  on  the  shallow 
sandy  side  of  the  river  close  to  the  native  village ;  the 
Papuans  generally  place  their  villages  on  gently  sloping 
rather  than  on  steep  banks  for  convenience  in  hauling 
up  their  canoes.  The  cooHes,  such  as  there  were  of 
them,  were  occupied  on  the  river,  the  natives  for  the 


^56  PYGMIES  AND   PAPUANS 

first  few  months  were  of  little  or  no  assistance  in 
building,  and  the  work  was  done  almost  entirely  by- 
half  a  dozen  of  the  Gurkhas.  Their  greatest  achieve- 
ment was  the  construction  of  a  log-house  in  the  best 
Himalayan  style,  probably  by  far  the  solidest  building 
that  was  ever  put  up  in  Dutch  New  Guinea.  The  floor 
was  raised  about  three  feet  above  the  ground  and  it 
was  well  that  the  workmanship  was  good,  for  it  had 
not  been  finished  many  weeks  before  a  flood  swept  over 
the  camp  and  everyone  took  refuge  in  the  house,  the 
floor  of  which  was  just  awash.  Afterwards  the  camp 
was  moved  to  the  high  bank  across  the  river  and  the 
subsequent  floods  swamped  the  house  and  carried  it 
away  piecemeal,  but  two  of  the  uprights  survived  and 
were  still  standing  a  year  later. 

We  were  a  good  deal  annoyed  at  Parimau  by  the 
larvcB  of  a  small  red  and  black  beetle,  which  infested 
the  wood  of  which  the  frames  of  our  huts  were  made. 
These  larvce,  which  look  like  small  hairy  caterpillars, 
were  continually  dropping  from  the  roof  and  when  they 
were  killed,  or  even  touched,  they  emitted  the  most 
disagreeable  musky  smell.  They  sometimes  dropped 
upon  you  during  the  night  and  the  smell  of  them  would 
wake  you  from  your  sleep.  The  beetle  itself  too,  if 
crushed  or  irritated,  has  the  same  disgusting  peculiarity. 
It  has  been  mentioned  above  (Chapter  V.)  that 
Captain  Rawling  in  exploring  to  the  N.W.  of  Parimau 
came  to  the  big  river  Kapare,  which  we  unsuccessfully 
tried  to  navigate  in  canoes  from  below  to  the  point 
where  he  had  met  it.  While  he  was  walking  up  the 
river  bed  one   day,   the   Papuans   who  were  with   him 


DISCOVERY  OF  THE  PYGMIES  157 

caught  after  an  exciting  chase  two  small  men,  whose 
build    and  dress   and   appearance   proclaimed  them  to 
belong  to  another   race  than  the  Papuan.      A  day  or 
two   later  two  more   were   captured,    while  they  were 
crossing    the    river ;     they    were    kindly   treated     and 
presents   were    given    to   them,    but    they    showed   no 
inclination  to  conduct  strangers  to  their  home,  a  large 
clearing  in  the  jungle  on  the  hill  side,  which  could  be 
plainly  seen  from  the  Kapare  River.      We  learnt  from 
the  Papuans  that  these  little  people  were  called  Tapiro.* 
At  the  beginning  of  March  I  accompanied  one  of  the 
food-transports  up  the  Mimika  and  went  with  Rawling 
out  to  the  Kapare,  where  he  had  made  a  camp  and  was 
occupied  with  some  of  the  Gurkhas  in  cutting  a  track 
through  the  jungle.      By  that  time  we  had  no  coolies 
available   for    land  transport ;   in   six   weeks   our   fifty 
coolies  had  diminished  to  ten,  who  were  all  wanted  for 
the  canoes,  so  we  were   entirely  dependent  on  native 
assistance    for    land   journeys.      There   was   not   much 
difficulty  in  persuading  people  to  carry  loads   for   us 
from  Parimau  to  the  nearest  point  of  the  Kapare  River, 
for  they  were  accustomed  to  go  over  there  to  fish.     But 
it  was  a  different  business  on  the  second  day,  when  we 
wanted  to  push  the  camp  a  few  miles  further  up  the 
river  so  as  to  be  in  a  better  position  for  reaching  the 
clearing  of  the  Tapiro.     At  first  they  resolutely  refused 
to  start  at  all  and  retired  to  the  shelters  they  had  made 
at  a  little  distance  from  the  camp.      From  there  they 
had  to  be  led  back  by  the  hand  one  by  one  and  then  be 
severally  introduced  to  their  loads,  but  even  so  a  number 
*  The  accent  is  placed  on  the  firs  t  syllable— Tapiro. 


158  PYGMIES  AND  PAPUANS 

of  them  ran  away  again,  and  it  was  hours  before  we 
moved  from  the  camp. 

When  once  they  were  started  they  went  steadily 
enough  for  about  a  mile  and  then  they  all  put  down  their 
loads  and  refused  to  go  on,  but  as  they  had  stopped  in 
the  middle  of  the  bed  of  the  river  it  was  impossible  to 
remain  there,  so  with  promises  of  cloth  and  beads  we 
urged  them  on  a  little  further.  The  same  performance 
was  repeated  a  dozen  times  at  intervals,  which  became 
shorter  and  shorter  until  our  coaxing  and  cajoling  availed 
no  longer  and  there  was  nothing  for  it  but  to  stop  and 
make  a  camp.  It  had  taken  us  more  than  four  hours  to 
cover  less  than  three  miles,  most  of  which  was  easy  going 
over  sand  and  stones  in  the  bed  of  the  river.  We  should 
have  been  awkwardly  situated  if  they  had  all  gone  away 
and  left  us  to  carry  the  loads,  as  they  did  a  few  weeks 
later  to  Marshall,  who  was  deserted  by  them  and  forced 
to  leave  some  of  his  baggage  behind  him.  Needless  to 
say,  these  misfortunes  would  not  have  occurred  if  our 
Malay  coolies  had  been  suited  to  their  work.  As  it  was, 
there  were  considerable  periods  when  we  had  either  to 
make  use  of  what  help  the  natives  consented  to  give  us, 
or  else  be  content  to  do  nothing  at  all. 

When  it  suits  them  to  do  so,  the  Mimika  Papuans 
can  carry  very  heavy  loads  and  they  manage  to  cover 
the  ground  at  a  very  respectable  pace.  They  wrap  up 
the  load  in  the  mat  made  of  pandanus  leaves,  which 
every  man  always  carries  with  him  to  serve  both  as  a 
sleeping  mat  and  as  a  shelter  from  the  rain.  The  mat  is 
securely  tied  by  ropes  of  rattan  or  any  of  the  other 
innumerable  creepers  of  the  jungle,  and  two  strong  loops 


''r-^*' 

-t  .  .--s' ---.-..  -    »     -iiip  ^■-     *     .4- 

'--^^^^  -^^ 

r^^h:^:^^:*-^-    i. 

A    TRIBl-TAKN-     M  K  i:AM     OF    THE    KAPARE    KIVEK. 


BIRDS  OF  PARADISE  159 

are  made  to  pass  over  the  shoulders  so  that  the  load 
may  be  carried  on  the  back,  ruck-sack  fashion.  The 
women  carry  loads  as  well  as  the  men  and  sometimes 
also  the  children,  when  the  whole  family  is  making  a 
journey. 

From  our  upper  camp  on  the  Kapare  River  Rawling 
and  I  made  two  attempts  to  reach  the  forest  clearing  of 
the  Tapiro,  which  could  be  easily  seen  from  the  camp  at 
a  distance  of  about  three  miles  in  a  straight  line ;  but 
though  careful  bearings  of  its  direction  were  taken,  it 
turned  out  to  be  a  most  puzzhng  place  to  reach.  Not 
more  than  a  mile  above  the  camp  the  Kapare  emerges 
from  a  deep  and  narrow  gorge  in  the  foot  hills— or  rather 
the  spurs  of  the  mountains,  they  are  too  steep  to  call 
foot  hills — which  descend  very  abruptly  to  the  almost 
level  country  below.  Just  after  it  emerges  from  the 
gorge,  the  river  is  joined  by  a  stream  of  the  clearest 
water  I  have  ever  seen,  which  we  afterwards  came  to  call 
the  White  Water  (see  illustration  opposite). 

In  our  first  attempt  to  reach  the  clearing  we  wandered 
in  the  jungle  for  ten  hours  and  came  nowhere  near  to  it. 
But  the  day  was  not  altogether  wasted,  for  we  climbed 
up  the  hillside  to  about  fifteen  hundred  feet  and  by 
cutting  down  some  trees  we  obtained  a  wonderful  view 
across  the  plain  of  the  jungle  to  the  distant  sea.  The  air 
of  the  jungle  was  heavy  with  the  scent  of  the  wild  Vanilla, 
and  all  around  us  were  calling  (but  we  could  not  see 
them)  Greater  Birds  of  Paradise ;  sometimes  we  were 
within  sound  of  as  many  as  six  at  one  time.  On  that 
day  too  I  first  saw  the  Rifle  Bird  (PHlorhis  inter cedens), 
one  of  the  most  beautiful  though  the  least  gaudy  of  the 


i6o  PYGMIES  AND   PAPUANS 

birds  of  Paradise,  whose  long-drawn  whistle  can  never 
be  mistaken  or  forgotten. 

In  our  second  attempt  we  profited  by  some  of  the 
mistakes  made  on  the  former,  but  even  so  the  irregularity 
of  the  ground  and  the  complexity  of  the  watercourses 
nearly  succeeded  in  baffling  us.  "  Rawling  and  I  left 
"camp  early  with  two  Gurkhas.  A  mile  and  a  half  up 
"  the  left  bank  of  the  river  we  struck  off  N.E.  from  the 
"  path  we  followed  the  other  da3\  Cut  a  new  path 
"  through  the  jungle  for  about  a  mile  until  we  came  to  a 
"faint  native  track,  which  we  followed  for  another  mile 
"  or  so,  chiefly  along  fallen  tree  trunks  overhung  by  a 
"  network  of  rattan  and  other  creepers,  a  fearful  struggle 
"  to  get  through.  Then  for  a  mile  or  more  up  the  bed 
"  of  a  stony  stream  encumbered  with  the  same  obstruc- 
"  tions,  dead  trees  and  rattans,  until  we  came  to  a  deep 
"gorge  with  a  torrent  about  three  hundred  feet  below 
"us  and  on  the  opposite  side  the  steep  slope  of  another 
"great  spur  of  the  mountain,  on  which  the  clearing 
"presumably  lay.  We  shthered  and  scrambled  down  to 
"  the  river,  which  was  full  of  water  and  only  just  fordable. 
"  Then  up  the  other  slope,  not  knowing  at  all  accurately 
"  the  direction  of  the  clearing.  Very  steep  and  the  jungle 
"very  dense  with  rattan  and  tree-ferns,  so  the  leading 
"  Gurkha  was  kept  busily  occupied  in  cutting  with  his 
"  kiikri  and  progress  was  slow. 

"  About  one  o'clock,  when  we  had  been  going  for 
"  nearly  six  hours,  the  clouds  came  down  and  it  began  to 
*'  rain  and  we  were  ready  to  turn  back.  Luckily  the 
"  Gurkhas  were  convinced  that  the  clearing  was  not  far 
**  ahead  and  when  we  found  a  pig-trap,  a  noose  of  rattan 


\-^s 


WE  VISIT  THE  PYGMIES  i6i 

"  set  in  a  faint  track,  it  seemed  that  they  might  perhaps 
"  be  right.  So  we  went  on  and  in  a  few  minutes  we  came 
"  out  of  the  forest  into  the  clearing.  About  thirty  yards 
"  from  us  was  a  hut  with  three  men  standing  outside  it. 
"  We  called  out  to  them  and  they  waited  until  we  came 
"up.  A  minute  or  two  later  two  more  men  came  out 
"  from  the  forest  behind  us,  no  doubt  they  had  been 
"  following  us  unseen.  The  hut  was  a  most  primitive 
"structure  of  sticks  roofed  with  leaves,  leaning  up 
"  against  the  hillside.  There  was  a  fire  in  the  hut  and 
"  beside  it  was  sitting  an  old  man  covered  with  most 
"  horrible  sores.  We  went  on  up  the  hill  for  a  couple  of 
"  hundred  yards  to  a  place  (about  1900  feet  above  the 
"  sea)  where  we  had  a  fine  view.  Rawling  put  up  the 
"  plane-table  and  got  angles  on  to  several  points  for  the 
"  map. 

"  During  the  hour  or  more  that  we  stayed  there,  eight 
"  men  came  to  see  us.  Excepting  one  rather  masterful 
"  little  man,  who  had  no  fear  of  us,  they  were  too  shy  to 
"  approach  us  closely  and  remained  about  ten  yards 
"  distant,  but  even  so  it  was  plainly  evident  from  their 
"  small  stature  alone,  that  they  were  of  a  different  race 
"  from  the  people  of  the  low  country. 

"  The  most  remarkable  thing  about  them  is  the  case 
"  that  each  man  wears,  his  only  article  of  clothing  ;  it  is 
\  "  made  of  a  long  yellow  gourd,  about  two  inches  in 
"  diameter  at  the  base  and  tapering  to  about  half  an  inch 
"  at  the  pointed  end.  It  is  worn  with  the  pointed  end 
"  upwards  and  is  kept  in  position  by  a  string  round  the 
"  waist.  As  the  length  of  the  case — some  of  them 
"  measure   more   than   fifteen   inches — is   more   than   a 

M 


i6: 


PYGMIES  AND  PAPUANS 


'  quarter  of  the  height  of  the  man  himself,  it  gives  him 
'  a  most  extraordinary  appearance.  Every  man  carries 
'  a  bow  and  arrows  in  his  hand  and  a  plaited  fibre  bag  of 

*  quite  elaborate  design  slung  on  his  back.  Two  men 
'  wore  necklaces  of  very  rough  scraps  of  shell  and  one 
'  had  a  strip  of  fur  round  his  head.     Two  others  wore  on 

*  their  heads  curious  helmet-like  hats  of  grass  ornamented 
'  with  feathers. 

"  One  man  had  a  diminutive  axe  made  of  a  piece  of 
'  soft  iron  about  three  inches  long,  set  in  a  handle  like 
'  those  of  the  stone  axes.  They  must  have  some  bigger 
'  axes,  as  they  have  cut  down  some  very  large  trees  and 

*  the  marks  on  the  stumps  look  as  if  they  had  been  made 

*  with  fairly  sharp  instruments.  The  clearing  altogether 
'  is  very  considerable,  probably  fifty  acres  or  more. 
'  The  ground  is  covered  with  ihe  sweet-potato  plant,  and 
'  in  many  places  '  taro  '  has  been  carefully  picked  out. 
'  They  have  a  few  coarse-looking  bananas,  some  of  which 
'  they  offered  to  us. 

"Their  voices  are  rather  high-pitched  and  one  of 
'  them,  who  met  us  first  and  called  several  of  the  others 
'  to  come  and  see  us,  ended  his  calls  with  a  very  curious 
'  shrill  jodelling  note.  When  we  came  away  we  offered 
'  them  cloth  and  beads  to  come  with  us  and  show  us  a 
'  better  way,  but  they  were  either  too  frightened  or  too 
'  lazy  to  do  so.  We  got  back  to  camp  after  ten  hours' 
'  hard  going,  drenched  with  rain  and  covered  with 
'  leeches,  but  well-pleased  with  the  success  of  the  day."  * 

That  was  the  last  that  we  saw  for  a  long  time  of  the 
Tapiro  pygmies,  for  it  was  evident  that  the  Kapare  River 
*  Extract  from  diar}',  i2tli  March  1910.    A.F.RAV. 


NATIVES  AS  CARRIERS  163 

was  useless  as  a  means  of  approach  to  the  Snow  Mountains 
and  we  had  to  turn  our  attention  to  the  country  to  the 
N.E.  of  the  Mimika.  Moreover,  it  was  impossible  to  keep 
the  camp  there  supplied  with  provisions,  as  we  were  at 
that  time  entirely  dependent  for  transport  on  the  good- 
will of  the  Papuans. 

Generally  speaking  we  always  remained  on  excellent 
terms  with  the  natives  and  very  rarely  had  any  trouble 
with  them.  Except  that  we  bought  from  them  the 
"  atap  "  for  our  houses,  we  got  little  or  no  help  from  the 
people  of  Wakatimi,  but  the  people  of  Parimau  assisted 
us  in  a  number  of  ways.  At  first,  as  I  have  shewn,  we 
had  considerable  difficulty  in  persuading  them  to  work 
for  us  as  carriers  ;  but  when  they  found  that  they  really 
did  receive  the  payment  they  were  promised,  they  were 
willing  and  sometimes  even  anxious  to  carry  loads  for  us, 
though  we  often  had  to  wait  a  few  days  until  it  suited 
their  convenience  to  start.  It  was  a  pity  that  they  were 
never  willing  to  travel  further  than  about  three  days' 
march  from  their  village,  but  as  there  were  long  periods 
when  we  were  entirely  dependent  on  them  for  land  trans- 
port, we  counted  ourselves  lucky  in  their  agreeing  to  work 
at  all. 

Chiefly  owing  to  the  help  of  the  natives  we  were  able 
to  make  and  keep  supplied  for  several  months  another 
camp  on  the  Wataikwa  River,  three  days'  march  north- 
east from  Parimau.  When  they  went  out  there  first, 
they  were  accustomed  to  receive  their  pay,  cloth  and 
beads  or  a  small  knife  at  the  end  of  the  journey ;  but 
later,  when  wages  rose,  as  they  inevitably  did  with  every 
successive    journey,  it   seemed  to   be  absurd   to  waste 


i64  PYGMIES  AND  PAPUANS 

perhaps  half  a  load  by  carrying  axes  and  knives  to  be 
given  in  payment  at  the  end  of  the  march.  So  a  plan  was 
adopted  of  giving  them  at  the  Wataikwa  camp  a  paper 
authorising  them  to  demand  payment  on  their  return  to 
Parimau,  and  it  was  a  gratifying  tribute  to  the  confidence 
that  they  had  in  us  that  they  readily  fell  in  with  the 
scheme.  Before  starting  they  were  shewn  the  knife  or 
axe  or  whatever  it  was  that  they  would  receive  for 
their  labour,  and  at  the  end  they  raced  back  with  their 
scraps  of  paper  to  Parimau,  covering  in  a  few  hours  the 
distance  that  had  taken  them  three  days  on  the  outward 
journey.  Some  of  the  less  energetic  people  in  the  village, 
when  they  saw  that  their  friends  received  a  knife  or  an 
axe  by  merely  presenting  a  small  piece  of  paper  to  the 
man  in  charge  of  the  camp  at  Parimau,  thought  that 
they  might  easily  earn  the  same  reward,  and  they  were 
rather  astonished  to  find  that  the  small  scraps  of  paper, 
which  they  handed  in,  produced  nothing  at  all  or  only  a 
serious  physical  rebuff.  But  they  were  so  childlike  in 
their  misdemeanours  that  one  could  not  be  seriously 
angry  with  them. 

They  shewed  their  confidence  in  our  honesty  in  an- 
other very  flattering  way.  During  the  period  of  the  most 
frequent  floods  at  Parimau,  when  they  were  liable  to  be 
washed  away  at  any  moment,  the  people  took  most  of 
their  movable  possessions  out  of  their  houses  and  hid 
them  in  safe  places  in  the  jungle.  But  many  of  them 
merely  brought  their  goods  across  to  our  side  of  the  river 
and  deposited  them  without  any  attempt  at  concealment 
within  a  few  yards  of  our  camp,  apparently  knowing  that 
there  they  would  be  perfectly  secure  from  theft. 


OUR  RELATIONS  WITH  THE  NATIVES    165 

They  are  by  nature  unconscionable  thieves  and  a 
chance  of  steahng  is  to  them  merely  a  chance  of  acquiring 
property  in  the  easiest  way.  On  one  occasion,  when  a 
party  of  our  coolies  were  returning  alone  from  Parimau 
to  Wakatimi,  they  were  waylaid  at  a  narrow  place  in 
the  river  by  some  Papuans,  who  reheved  them  of  their 
baggage  and  disappeared  into  the  jungle ;  most  of  the 
stolen  goods  were  subsequently  returned,  when  the 
natives  were  threatened  with  punishment.  The  same 
thing  happened  another  time  when  the  coolies  were 
accompanied  by  armed  Javanese  soldiers,  who  ap- 
parently forgot  the  use  of  their  rifles  until  the  thieves 
had  got  away.  But  they  had  a  proper  respect  for  a 
white  man  and  whenever  one  of  us,  armed  or  not,  was 
with  the  canoes,  the  natives  never  tried  to  molest  us. 
They  occasionally  stole  from  the  camps  a  knife  or  an 
axe,  but  though  they  were  constantly  about  our  houses 
and  often  inside  them  for  hours  at  a  time,  we  never  lost 
anything  of  value. 

A  temptation,  which  often  proved  too  strong  for 
them,  was  our  fleet  of  canoes.  At  Wakatimi  the  canoes 
were  moored  in  front  of  the  camp  at  the  place  where  the 
natives,  who  came  to  visit  us,  were  accustomed  to  land. 
They  came  mostly  in  the  late  afternoon  and  stayed  till 
sunset,  and  it  happened  several  times  that  when  they 
went  away  they  contrived  to  put  two  or  three  men  into 
one  of  our  canoes  and  slip  away  with  it  unnoticed  in  the 
dusk.  But  when  on  the  following  day  we  made  a  fuss, 
the  canoe  was  generally  brought  back  with  a  long  story 
of  its  having  been  found  floating  down  the  river  towards 
the  sea. 


i66  PYGMIES  AND   PAPUANS 

An  opportunity  of  looting,  which  was  not  to  be 
resisted,  occurred  one  day  when  a  party  of  discharged 
coohes  were  leaving  the  countr3\  The  boat,  in  which 
they  were  being  taken  off  to  the  ship,  capsized  as  it 
came  alongside  the  steamer  and  thirty  cooUes  and  all 
their  belongings  were  upset  into  the  sea.  The  captain 
of  the  ship  was  only  anxious  to  save  his  boat  and  the 
coolies  hastened  to  escape  from  the  sharks.  In  the 
meantime  a  crowd  of  natives,  who  had  come  down  in 
their  canoes  to  visit  the  ship,  lost  no  time  in  picking  up 
the  floating  boxes  and  bundles  of  clothing,  and  before 
anybody  was  aware  of  their  action  the}^  were  fast  paddhng 
away  to  their  villages. 

On  such  occasions  and  at  other  times  when  we  had 
reason  to  be  angry  with  them,  the  people  of  Wakatimi 
observed  a  curious  custom.  There  was  in  the  village  a 
coloured  china  plate  and  a  piece  of  bent  silver  wire, 
which  was  sometimes  used  by  the  owner  as  an  ear-ring. 
On  the  morning  following  their  misdemeanour  two  men 
came  over  from  the  village  bringing  the  ear-ring  on  the 
plate,  which  they  gave  to  us,  shook  hands  and  departed. 
Later  in  the  day  they  returned  and  we  gave  them  back 
their  gifts  ;  this  happened  several  times. 

At  one  time  there  was  a  serious  epidemic  of  drunken- 
ness among  the  people  of  Wakatimi  and  they  shewed 
their  ill-manners  by  shooting  arrows  into  the  camp. 
This  was  of  no  consequence  when  only  one  person  mis- 
behaved himself.  But  when  one  day  a  number  of  men 
waded  half-way  across  the  river  and  began  to  send 
arrows  into  the  camp,  it  had  to  be  stopped.  The  Dutch 
sergeant,  who  was  alone  in  charge  of  the  place  at  the 


I 


OUR   RELATIONS   WITH  THE   NATIVES    167 

time,  held  up  his  rifle,  a  weapon  the  use  of  which  tlicy 
very  weU  understood,  and  signalled  to  them  that  unless 
they  went  away  he  would  hre.  As  they  took  no  notice 
of  his  warning  he  flred,  aiming  at  the  legs  of  the  ring- 
leader, but  unfortunately  he  hit  him  in  the  groin. 
Shortly  afterwards,  so  little  animosity  did  they  show 
and  so  complete  was  their  confidence  in  us,  they  brought 
the  wretched  man  over  to  our  camp,  but  nothing  could 
be  done  for  him  and  in  a  few  hours  he  died. 

They  were  very  appreciative  of  medical  treatment 
and  at  different  times  we  were  able  to  do  a  good  deal 
for  them.  One  man  actually  went  so  far  as  to  pay  a 
fee  of  half  a  dozen  coconuts  for  the  saving  of  his  little 
daughter's  ulcerated  foot,  which  was  rapidly  going  from 
bad  to  worse  under  native  treatment.  They  often  cut 
themselves  severely  with  our  axes  and  knives  before 
they  learnt  their  sharpness,  and  their  wounds  healed 
astonishingly  quickly  with  ordinary  clean  methods ; 
the  only  trouble  was  that  they  liked  to  take  off  the 
bandages  and  use  them  for  personal  adornment. 

As  well  as  acting  as  carriers  for  us,  the  people  at 
Parimau  did  a  considerable  amount  of  work  for  us 
about  the  camp  in  cutting  down  trees,  an  occupation 
which  they  always  enjoyed,  and  in  helping  to  build 
some  of  the  houses.  They  were  even  more  useful  to  us 
as  naturalists  and,  thanks  mainly  to  them,  we  made  a 
very  complete  collection  of  the  reptiles  of  the  district. 
They  were  particularly  adept  at  catching  snakes  and 
often  five  or  six  men  in  a  day  would  stroll  into  the 
camp  carrying  a  deadly  poisonous  snake  wrapped  up 
in  leaves.     One   day   Goodfellow  was  walking  through 


i68  PYGMIES  AND   PAPUANS 

the  jungle  with  some  natives  and  the  man  in  front 
of  him  stooped  down  and  picked  up  a  poisonous  viper 
without  even  pausing  in  his  stride. 

^ye  always  encouraged  the  natives  to  bring  us  snakes 
in  the  hope  of  getting  new  species,  and  when  we  did 
not  want  those  that  they  brought,  they  were  quite 
content  to  take  them  away  and  eat  them.  They  seemed 
to  have  a  peculiar  knack  of  catching  poisonous  things, 
for  besides  snakes  they  often  brought  scorpions  and 
centipedes  in  their  parcels  of  leaves.  With  the  more 
delicate  creatures  such  as  lizards  they  were  less  suc- 
cessful and  among  the  hundreds  that  they  brought  us 
there  were  very  few  which  they  had  not  damaged. 
They  always  assumed  an  air  of  importance  and  some- 
what of  mystery,  when  they  brought  some  animal  for 
sale,  and  you  always  knew  that  when  you  had  bought, 
or  refused,  as  the  case  might  be,  the  creature  that  was 
offered,  the  man  would  instantly  produce  something 
else,  but  the  puzzle  was  always  to  know  whence  he 
produced  it,  for  his  scanty  costume  does  not  admit  of 
pockets. 


CHAPTER  XIII 

Visit  of  Mr.  Lorcntz — Arrival  of  Steam  Launch — A  Sailor  Drowned — 
Our  Second  Batch  of  Coolies — Health  of  the  Gurkhas — Dayaks  the 
best  Coolies — Sickness — Arrival  of  Motor  Boat — Camp  under 
Water — Expedition  moves  to  Parimau — Explorations  beyond  the 
Mimika — Leeches — Floods  on  the  Tuaha  River — Overflowing  Rivers 
— The  Wataikwa — Cutting  a  Track. 

A  PLEASANT  interlude  in  the  monotony  of  the  early  part 
of  the  expedition  occurred  one  day  towards  the  end  of 
March,  when  the  natives  of  Wakatimi  signalled  in  the 
usual  way  the  approach  of  a  boat  and  presently  a  steam 
launch  appeared  with  Europeans  on  board.  They  turned 
out  to  be  the  Dutch  explorer,  Mr.  H.  A.  Lorentz,  who  -^ 
was  on  his  way  back  from  his  second  and  successful 
expedition  to  Mount  Wilhelmina  by  way  of  the  Noord 
River,  with  his  companions  Captain  J.  W.  van  Nouhuys 
and  Lieutenant  Habbema,  and  the  Captain  of  the 
Government  steamer  Java,  which  had  anchored  off  the 
mouth  of  the  Mimika.  Mr.  Lorentz  looked  like  a  man 
hardly  returned  from  the  dead,  as  indeed  he  well  might, 
for  after  climbing  to  the  snows  of  Mount  Wilhelmina  he 
had  fallen  down  a  cliff  on  his  return,  with  a  result  of  two 
broken  ribs  and  serious  concussion  of  the  brain,  and  he 
had  endured  untold  sufferings  on  his  way  back  to  the 
foot  of  the  mountain.  But  he  had  achieved  the  prin- 
cipal object  of  his  expedition,  and  his  spirits  were  in 
better  condition  than  his  body.     They  stayed  for  the 


170  PYGMIES  AND   PAPUANS 

night  with  us  and  at  dinner,  though  I  was  in  a  minority 
of  one  to  six,  with  characteristic  courtesy  they  all  spoke 
English  ;  the  entertainment,  assisted  by  luxuries  brought 
from  the  Java,  lasted  until  the  small  hours,  and  it  was 
the  pleasantest  evening  I  spent  in  New  Guinea. 

The  Java  brought  for  us  the  long-expected  steam 
launch,  and  its  career  began,  as  it  ended,  with  disaster. 
Before  dawn  one  of  the  men  of  the  boat  wished  to  fetch 
something  that  he  had  left  on  the  launch,  which  was 
moored  in  the  river  about  fifteen  yards  from  the  bank. 
The  sentry  on  duty  did  his  best  to  prevent  him,  because 
it  was  a  rule  of  the  camp  that  no  man  was  allowed  to 
bathe  before  sunrise,  but  he  insisted  on  swimming  out  to 
the  launch.  In  a  few  yards  he  found  that  the  current 
was  stronger  than  he  had  expected,  he  called  for  help, 
and  in  a  few  moments  a  canoe  set  out  in  the  gloom  to 
look  for  him,  but  no  more  was  seen  of  him  until  his 
body  was  recovered  by  the  natives  at  the  mouth  of  the 
Mimika  a  few  days  later.  Shortly  after  the  accident 
happened  our  guests  left  us  on  their  way  back  to  Europe, 
and  we  watched  their  departure  with  somewhat  envious 
eyes. 

The  history  of  the  middle  period  of  the  expedition, 
that  is  to  say,  from  April  to  December,  is  chiefly  a  his- 
tory of  floods  and  sickness  and  disappointment.  In  the 
middle  of  April  Goodfellow,  who  had  gone  away  early  in 
March,  returned  with  a  fresh  batch  of  forty-eight  coolies, 
whom  he  had  recruited  in  Banda  and  Amboina.  About 
a  half  of  these  men  were  natives  of  the  island  of  Buton, 
and  the  rest  were  Ambonesc,  and  though  they  were  the 
best  men  that  could  be  found  at  such  short  notice,  and 


COOLIES  AND   GURKHAS  171 

were  greatly  superior  to  our  first  batch  of  coolies,  they 
were  really  not  fit  for  the  work  they  had  to  do,  and  the 
majority  of  them  soon  became  useless  to  us. 

The  steam  launch  towed  the  canoes  for  a  short  dis- 
tance up  the  river  once  or  twice,  but  it  very  soon  broke 
down  and  thenceforward  until  the  middle  of  June  all  the 
transport  between  Wakatimi  and  Parimau  was  done  by 
the  coolies  themselves.  For  them  it  was  literally  a  kill- 
ing work ;  in  the  first  few  weeks  two  men  died,  one  of 
pneumonia,  the  other  of  dysentery,  both  causes  resulting 
from  the  circumstances  of  their  work,  while  several 
others  developed  the  first  signs  of  beri-beri  and  had  to 
be  sent  away  at  the  earliest  opportunity. 

About  the  same  time  one  of  the  Gurkhas  died ;  he 
was  from  the  beginning  a  very  unhealthy  man,  who 
ought  not  to  have  been  engaged  for  the  expedition.  Of 
the  other  nine  Gurkhas  three  were  invalided  home  before 
the  end  of  the  year  and  the  remaining  six  stayed  with  us 
until  we  left  the  country.  Although  they  came  from  the 
highlands  of  Darjeeling — or  perhaps  for  that  very  reason 
— our  Gurkhas,  who  were  by  no  means  a  carefully 
selected  lot,  withstood  the  trials  and  the  climate  of  the 
country  better  than  any  of  the  other  "  native  "  people  in 
the  expedition  and,  if  expense  were  no  drawback,  it  is 
probable  that  an  expedition  to  New  Guinea  would  have 
the  best  chance  of  success  if  coolies  were  taken  from 
Northern  India. 

That  is,  however,  rather  a  counsel  of  perfection,  and 
an  expedition  to  New  Guinea  must  make  use  of  natives 
of  the  Malay  Archipelago.  The  Ambonese  and  the 
Butonese  have  been  tried  and  have  been  found  wanting, 


172  PYGMIES  AND   PAPUANS 

so  also  have  the  Ke  Islanders  and  the  Sundanese  from 
the  mountains  of  central  Java.  Possibly  the  wild  hill- 
men  of  Timor,  if  enough  of  them  could  be  engaged, 
would  work  well,  but  the  only  people  who  have  hitherto 
worked  successfully  as  coolies  in  Dutch  New  Guinea  are 
the  hill-Dayaks  of  Borneo.  Mr.  Lorentz,  who  took  with 
'f  him  eighty  Dayaks,  most  of  them  from  the  Mendalen 
River,  on  his  expedition  to  Mount  Wilhelmina,  spoke 
with  enthusiasm  of  the  admirable  behaviour  of  his  men, 
and  if  Indian  or  other  Asiatic  coolies  are  not  available, 
it  may  be  said  that  an  expedition  to  the  mountainous 
districts  of  Dutch  New  Guinea  can  only  be  properly 
conducted  with  Dayaks. 

Our  coolies  were  not  the  only  people  in  the 
expedition  who  began  to  feel  the  ill  effects  of  the 
climate  ;  the  Javanese  soldiers  and  convicts  quickly 
filled  the  hospital  which  had  been  put  up  at  Wakatimi, 
and  in  May  and  June  there  were  many  mornings  when 
I  saw  more  than  forty  sick  men.  Most  of  them  suffered 
from  fever  and  a  more  or  less  severe  form  of  dysenterj^ 
and  a  good  many  cases  of  beri-beri  occurred.  Un- 
fortunately sickness  was  not  confined  to  our  native 
followers  only ;  the  Europeans  began  also  to  suffer  from 
the  very  adverse  conditions  in  which  they  found  them- 
selves. One  or  two  of  the  Dutch  non-commissioned 
officers  became  seriously  ill ;  Goodfellovv,  who  returned 
with  the  second  batch  of  coolies  from  Banda  about  the 
middle  of  April,  was  never  free  from  fever  for  more  than 
a  few  days  from  that  time  until  he  left  the  country  in 
October ;  and  Shortridge  became  such  a  wreck  from 
almost     continuous    fever,     which     began    about    the 


THE  FIRST  FLOOD  173 

beginning  of  March,  that  by  the  end  of  May  he  had 
to  be  sent  away  for  three  months'  change  of  air  to 
AustraHa.  Soon  after  his  return  in  August  he  suc- 
cumbed again  to  the  evil  cHmate,  and  though  he  pluckily 
pretended  that  there  was  nothing  the  matter  with  him, 
he  went  from  bad  to  worse,  and  I  am  fully  persuaded 
that  his  almost  forcible  deportation  at  the  end  of 
November  saved  his  life. 

At  the  end  of  May,  Goodfellow  and  RawUng  went 
over  to  Dobo,  and  after  about  eight  days  returned  with 
the  motor  boat,  which  had  been  bought  from  the  pearl- 
fishers.  Like  most  things  of  which  a  great  deal  is  expected 
the  motor  boat  turned  out  to  be  a  disappointment,  and  it 
eventually  led  us  into  serious  difficulty,  but  for  a  short 
time  it  did  good  service  in  towing  boats  up  the  river,  and 
it  considerably  shortened  the  voyage  from  Wakatimi  to 
Parimau. 

The  day  of  the  arrival  of  the  motor  boat  was 
memorable  for  being  the  occasion  of  the  first  of  the 
really  serious  floods  that  beset  us.  Late  in  the  evening 
a  party  of  our  coolies  on  their  way  back  from  Parimau, 
who  were  not  due  to  arrive  until  the  following  day, 
reached  the  camp  at  Wakatimi,  most  of  which  was  by 
that  time  under  water.  The  journey  down  the  river 
usually  occupied  two  days,  but  they  had  found  all  the 
usual  camping  places,  some  of  which  were  high  above 
the  ordinary  river  bed,  under  water,  and  they  had  been 
unable  to  find  any  safe  resting-place. 

The  three  following  days  were  among  the  most 
unpleasant  that  I  had  ever  spent,  though  worse  were  to 
follow  later.     On  the  morning  of  the  first  day  the  water 


^ 


174  PYGMIES  AND   PAPUANS 

fell  a  little  and  we  spent  laborious  hours  in  piling  up  our 
stores  and  movable  gear  on  to  the  top  of  empty  boxes, 
and  when,  those  were  all  used  on  posts  driven  into  the 
ground.     All  through  the  afternoon  the  water  rose,  the 
coohes'  and  soldiers'  houses  were  quickly  flooded,   and 
our  own  house,  which  was  on  the  highest  part  of  the 
camp,   was   nearly   a   foot   under  water.     On   the  two 
succeeding  days  the  conditions  were  much  more  serious, 
and  we  had  two  feet  of  water  in  our  house.     The  river 
took  a  short  cut  over  the  neck  of  land  formed  by  a  wide 
bend  of  the  river  on  which  the  camp  was   placed  and 
flowed  straight  through  the  camp.     Our  beds  were  raised 
up  on  empty  kerosene-tin  boxes,  and  when  these  were 
submerged  there  was  a  mild  excitement  in  guessing  how 
far  up  the  frame-work  of  the  bed  the  water  would  rise. 
Fires  were  put  out  and  cooking  was  impossible,  so  the 
coolies  and  soldiers,  who  depended  on  their  boiled  rice, 
had  rather  a  hungry  time.     Our  own  food  consisted  of 
biscuits  and  cold  tinned  stuff,  which  is  not  very  exhilara- 
ting when  you  have  been  in  water  all  day  long.     An 
unprejudiced  observer  looking  in  upon  us  from  the  outside 
in  the  evening  might  well  have  wondered  what  kind  of , 
lunatics  we  were  to  come  to  New  Guinea.     Goodfellow 
was  lying  in  bed  very  sick  with  fever,  while  Rawling  and 
I,  up  to  our  knees  in  water,  were  making  a  poor  pretence 
at  having  dinner.     The  only  humour  that  we  managed: 
to  extract  from  the  situation  was  in  the  novel  experience 
of  being  able,  without  moving  from  our  seats,  to  wash! 
our   plates   between   the   first   course    of    biscuits    andj 
sardines  and  the  second  course  of  biscuits  and  marma-j 
lade ;  the   Mimika  river  was  flowing  under   our  chairs] 


EXCURSIONS  BEYOND   MIMIKA  175 

and  wc  had  only  to  lower  our  plates  into  it  to  clean 
them. 

On  the  fourth  day  the  water  fell,  and  the  camp  was 
not  flooded  again  for  several  weeks,  but  there  was  left 
everywhere  a  thick  deposit  of  mud,  which  kept  the  houses 
sodden  for  a  long  time  afterwards.  In  spite  of  all  our 
precautions,  a  quantity  of  stores  were  irreparably  spoilt 
and,  worse  still,  the  flood  left  behind  it  an  increased 
amount  of  sickness,  and  indeed  the  wonder  was  that  the 
prolonged  soaking  had  not  ill  effects  on  every  one  of  us. 

At  the  beginning  of  July  Cramer  and  I  arrived  at 
Parimau,  bringing  with  us  the  last  loads  of  provisions 
to  complete  the  store,  which  w^e  had  been  working  hard 
for  three  months  with  our  second  batch  of  coolies  to 
accumulate  at  that  place.  It  was  hoped  that  that  store 
would  be  sufficient  to  enable  us  to  use  Parimau  as  a 
second  base  camp  for  making  a  prolonged  expedition 
into  the  mountains  without  wasting  any  more  time  on 
transports  up  the  river ;  but  in  that  we  had  reckoned 
without  the  vagaries  of  the  New  Guinea  climate  and  the 
consequent  diminution  of  the  effective  strength  of  our 
coolies,  who  w^ere  already  too  few  for  our  purpose. 

In  the  meantime  Rawling  and  Marshall  had  been 
making  excursions  to  the  North-east  of  Parimau,  in  the 
direction  of  the  high  mountains.  About  five  miles  from 
Parimau  they  had  come  to  the  Tuaba  River  and  about 
the  same  distance  further  on  they  had  come  to  the 
Kamura  River,  a  few  miles  above  its  junction  with  the 
Tuaba.  Continuing  in  the  same  direction  they  came 
to  another  river,  bigger  than  either  of  the  others,  the 
Wataikwa,  which  was  so  often  impassable  that  it  seemed 


170  PYGMIES  AND  PAPUANS 

likely  to  prevent  any  further  progress.  But  a  short 
excursion  up  the  valley  of  the  Wataikwa  showed  the 
impossibility  of  reaching  the  highest  mountains  by  that 
route,  and  a  camp  was  accordingly  established  on  the 
Wataikwa  with  a  view  to  crossing  that  river  when  an 
opportunity  should  occur. 

These  excursions  were  all  made  with  the  assistance  of 
natives,  without  whose  assistance  no  advance  beyond 
Parimau  would  have  been  possible,  so  long  as  all  the 
coolies  were  occupied  in  the  work  on  the  river.  Very 
little  reliance  could  be  placed  on  the  natives,  when  they 
were  working  as  carriers  alone  without  coolies,  and  most 
of  us  at  one  time  or  another  had  the  disagreeable  experi- 
ence of  being  deserted  by  them  and  left  unable  to  move 
either  backwards  or  forwards.  It  was  in  circumstances 
such  as  these  that  the  Gurkhas,  some  of  whom  always 
accompanied  us  in  journeys  through  the  jungle,  shewed 
to  the  best  advantage. 

When  the  store  of  provisions  at  Parimau  was  com- 
pleted, the  next  step  was  to  establish  a  further  depot  of 
provisions  at  the  Wataikwa  camp.  Though  the  distance 
between  the  two  places  was  less  than  fifteen  miles  in  a 
straight  line,  it  was  a  three  days'  march  for  a  loaded 
coolie  and  two  camping  places  were  made  on  the  way, 
one  on  an  island  in  the  Tuaba  River,  the  other  on  the 
bank  of  the  Kamura.  The  first  day's  march  from 
Parimau  began  by  crossing  and  recrossing  the  Mimika 
several  times  and  here  and  there  wading  up  the  river 
itself.  About  three  miles  up  the  river  we  struck  off 
Eastwards  through  the  jungle  along  a  hardly  visible 
native  track  used  by  the  people  going  to  the  village  of 


LEECHES  177 

Ibo ;  this  was  the  only  regular  native  track  we  used,  and 
these  few  miles  across  from  the  Mimika  to  the  Tuaba 
were  the  only  place  where  we  had  not  to  cut  our  own 
path.  The  mud  in  that  part  of  the  jungle  was  quite 
exceptionally  bad,  even  for  New  Guinea ;  in  the  com- 
paratively dry  weather  it  was  like  walking  through  por- 
ridge, and  in  the  wet  weather  you  were  continually 
struggling  through  liquid  slime  almost  up  to  your  knees. 
We  were  very  much  annoyed  there,  though  not  more 
in  that  than  in  other  parts  of  the  jungle,  by  the  leeches  -^ 
which  swarmed  everywhere.  These  hateful  little  crea- 
tures sit  on  the  leaves  or  twigs  stretched  out  to  their 
fullest  length  and  expectant  of  the  passer-by.  It  is  not 
necessary  to  beUeve,  as  some  people  do,  that  they  jump 
or  even  that  they  fall  upon  you  as  you  pass  beneath 
them ;  there  are  so  many  that  as  you  brush  through  the 
jungle  you  must  inevitably  touch  many  outstretched 
heads  and  as  soon  as  they  are  touched  they  attach  them- 
selves immediately  to  you.  They  are  extremely  rapid  in 
their  movements,  and  their  touch  is  so  delicate  that  you 
do  not  feel  their  presence  until  they  have  nearly  gorged 
themselves  with  blood.  Your  legs,  unless  they  are  well 
protected  with  putties,  are  most  liable  to  their  attacks, 
but  you  find  leeches  on  all  parts  of  your  body,  and  I 
have  found  them  in  my  eyes  and  in  my  mouth  and  once 
just  captured  one  as  it  was  preparing  to  enter  one  of  my 
nostrils.  They  are  able  to  consume  an  astonishingly 
large  quantity  of  blood,  and  when,  as  often  happens, 
they  open  a  small  vein,  the  bleeding  continues  after  they 
have  dropped  from  their  feeding  place.  It  is  not  advis- 
able to  pull  a  leech  from  your  body ;  it  often  results  in 

N 


178  PYGMIES  AND   PAPUANS 

the  creature  leaving  behind  a  part  of  its  clasper,  which 
may  give  rise  to  a  serious  sore.  Pigs  do  not  appear  to 
be  attacked  by  leeches,  but  the  soft  parts  of  the  heads  of 
some  of  the  cassowaries  that  were  shot  were  found  to  be 
covered  with  them.  Cassowaries  are  few  and  far  between, 
and  there  must  be  millions  of  leeches  that  go  through 
life  without  once  tasting  blood.  Some  of  the  leeches  are 
prettily  marked  with  stripes  of  yellow  and  brown,  but 
none  that  we  saw  in  the  jungle  were  of  large  size  ;  the 
longest  were  perhaps  two  inches  in  length. 

Besides  leeches  there  was  not  much  to  distract  or  to 
amuse  us  in  passing  through  that  stage  of  the  march — 
certainly  there  were  always  plenty  of  the  Greater  Birds 
of  Paradise  to  be  heard  calling,  but  they  were  very 
seldom  to  be  seen — and  we  were  chiefly  anxious  to 
struggle  to  the  end  of  it  ourselves  and  to  push  the  coolies 
along  until  we  heard  the  welcome  sound  of  heavy  water 
and  Hght  showed  through  the  trees  ahead.  The  Tuaba, 
at  the  place  where  we  were  accustomed  to  cross  it,  is  a 
wide  river  flowing  in  about  half  a  dozen  channels,  which 
extend  over  half  a  mile  or  more  of  ground.  All  of  these 
channels  are  considerable  torrents  even  in  the  most 
favourable  conditions  and  it  is  by  no  means  easy  to  cross 
them,  but  in  the  very  frequent  times  of  flood  they  are 
absolutely  impassable.  The  camping  place  was  made  on 
an  island  across  the  first  channel,  as  the  river  bank  proper 
was  covered  with  very  dense  jungle,  and  at  low  water 
the  island  was  surrounded  by  a  stretch  of  dry  sand  and 
shingle,  which  afforded  us  a  pleasant  drying  ground  after 
struggling  through  the  sweltering  jungle. 

But  it  was  not  always  a  place  of  calm ;  it  could  be 


TYPICAL    JUNGLE,    MIMIKA    RIVER. 


A   DANGEROUS   FLOOD  179 

quite  a  dangerous  place,  and  I  had  a  very  unpleasant 
experience  the  first  time  I  camped  there.  I  was  on  my 
way  out  to  the  Wataikwa  river  with  a  Gurkha,  four 
coolies  and  about  twenty  natives  of  Parimau  laden  with 
tins  of  rice.  The  river  was  comparatively  low  when  we 
pitched  our  camp,  but  it  began  to  rain  in  the  afternoon, 
and  the  almost  continuous  thunder  and  the  black  clouds 
in  that  direction  showed  us  that  it  was  raining  heavily 
in  the  mountains.  By  nightfall  the  rising  flood  had  com- 
pletely covered  the  sandbank  in  front  of  the  camp,  and 
before  midnight  the  river  was  flowing  right  through  the 
camp.  The  coolies  were  taking  refuge  like  birds  in  the 
trees,  and  the  water  had  just  covered  my  piece  of  ground, 
which  was  an  inch  or  two  higher  than  any  other  spot. 
The  Gurkha  came  and  helped  me  to  secure  the  stores 
from  the  water,  which  was  still  rising  fast.  We  arranged 
all  the  rice  tins  upright,  and  on  them  we  placed  my  bed  ; 
on  the  bed  we  placed  all  the  other  stores  and  baggage,  and 
finally  I  took  refuge  there  myself.  The  water  rose  above 
the  top  of  the  rice  tins  and  about  half  way  up  the  frame- 
work of  my  bed  and  then  happily  it  began  to  fall  rapidly, 
and  in  an  hour  or  two  the  camp  was  land  again.  Shoes 
of  mine  and  odd  garments  of  the  coolies  were  washed 
away,  but  we  had  been  in  no  danger  of  being  swept 
away,  for  the  current  was  not  rapid  enough  over  the 
comparatively  shallow  water  of  the  island ;  the  only  risk 
was  from  the  large  logs  and  trees  which  came  sweeping 
down  on  the  flood.  The  Papuans,  who  were  encamped 
on  another  island  a  short  distance  below  ours,  had  kept 
up  all  night  a  constant  and  most  melancholy  wailing, 
which  did  not  at  all  add  to  the  humour  of  the  situation. 


i8o  PYGMIES  AND   PAPUANS 

For  three  more  days  we  stayed  on  that  sandbank, 
while  the  rain  poured  down  and  the  river  swept  past  us 
on  both  sides,  unable  either  to  proceed  or  to  retreat.  I 
made  two  attempts  to  cross  the  river,  but  found  it  im- 
possible to  struggle  across  the  flood.  In  the  meantime 
the  natives,  who  were  well  able  to  swim  naked  across 
the  first  channel,  threatened  all  the  time  to  return  to 
Parimau.  A  few  of  them  did  leave  me,  but  the  rest 
by  constant  cajoling  and  by  liberal  gifts  of  rice,  for 
which  they  had  acquired  a  great  liking,  I  persuaded 
to  stay  with  me  until  after  four  daj^s  we  were  able  to 
get  away. 

From  the  Tuaba  to  the  Kamura  river,  a  distance  of 
about  four  miles,  a  track  had  been  cut  by  Marshall  and 
the  Gurkhas.  It  was  a  curious  piece  of  country,  almost 
level  and  covered  with  not  very  dense  jungle,  but  remark- 
able for  the  number  of  streams  flowing  through  it. 
Between  the  two  rivers  we  crossed  eighteen  streams  of 
various  sizes ;  some  were  rivulets,  and  others  swift  and 
strong  so  that  one  was  glad  of  a  supporting  Papuan 
on  either  hand.  The  Kamura  river  is  of  less  size  than 
the  Tuaba,  but  it  is  still  a  large  river  and  subject  to 
heavy  and  sudden  floods.  It  flows  in  a  bed  of  sand 
and  shingle  two  or  three  hundred  yards  from  bank  to 
bank,  though,  except  at  times  of  flood,  it  only  occupies 
a  narrow  channel.  Mostly  it  runs  swiftly  over  the 
stones,  but  here  and  there  are  long  stretches  of  still 
water  like  the  pool  of  a  salmon  river;  unluckily  there 
are  no  big  fish  in  it,  or  New  Guinea  would  be  a  pleasanter 
place  than  it  is. 

It  was  an  agreeable  change  to  come  out  on  to  the 


OVERFLOWING   RIVERS  i8i 

bank  of  the  Kamura,  for  from  there  we  had  our  first 
wide  view  of  the  mountains  that  we  hoped  to  reach. 
The  foothills,  if  mountains  eight  or  nine  thousand  feet 
high  may  be  so  described,  sloped  down  to  within  a  few 
miles  of  us  to  the  North,  and  behind  them  and  stretching 
far  to  East  and  West  rose  range  beyond  range  of  steep 
and  precipitous  ridges,  culminating  in  the  snowy  top  of 
Mount  Carstensz,  thirty  miles  to  the  North-east.  Our 
route  took  us  for  several  miles  along  the  course  of  the 
Kamura ;  it  was  certainly  not  comfortable  walking  over 
the  big  and  often  slippery  stones  and  wading  waist-deep 
across  the  river  three  or  four  times  to  cut  off  big  bends, 
but  it  was  pleasant  indeed  to  have  a  wide  free  space 
about  us  after  having  been  for  so  long  hemmed  in  by 
trees,  and  anything  was  preferable  to  the  mud  and 
leeches  of  the  jungle. 

A  few  miles  up  the  Kamura  we  left  the  main  river 
and  turned  off  up  the  bed  of  a  smaller  river,  which  joins 
it  from  the  East.  This  is  actually  a  branch  of  the 
Wataikwa  connecting  the  two  rivers,  and  down  it  comes 
a  great  volume  of  water  when  the  Wataikwa  is  full, 
while  at  other  times  it  becomes  almost  dry.  The  rivers 
of  this  district  of  New  Guinea  are  somewhat  peculiar  in 
this  respect ;  they  are  very  numerous,  and  they  flow  out 
from  the  mountains  in  a  North  to  South  direction,  with 
not  many  miles  intervening  between  one  river  and  the 
next.  As  soon  as  they  emerge  from  the  mountains  they 
find  themselves  on  quite  low  ground  and  with  forty  or 
more  miles  to  run  to  the  sea.  There  are  no  outlying 
hills  or  depressions  to  guide  them  in  any  particular 
course,  thus  it  happens  that  they  overflow  in  convenient 


i82  PYGMIES  AND  PAPUANS 

directions,  and  connections  are  established  between  one 
river  and  another.  As  well  as  in  the  case  of  the  Wa- 
taikwa  this  was  observed  on  the  Utakwa  river,  close  to 
the  foot  of  the  mountains,  and  I  believe  the  same  thing 
happens  on  the  Kapare  river.  Further  on  in  their 
courses,  when  they  approach  the  mangrove  swamps 
near  the  sea,  the  rivers  again  break  up  into  an  extra- 
ordinary network  of  branches.  Judging  from  the  appear- 
ance of  the  country  and  from  the  considerable  changes, 
which  we  observed  in  the  case  of  the  Wataikwa  during  a 
period  of  only  a  few  months,  it  is  probable  that  these 
great  rivers  change  their  courses  very  often. 

Whilst  parties  of  coolies,  rapidly  diminishing  in 
numbers,  were  occupied  at  lengthening  intervals  in 
transporting  stores  from  Parimau  to  the  camp  on  the 
Wataikwa  river,  Rawling  and  Marshall  had  found  a 
way  of  crossing  that  river.  It  is  true  that  there  were 
a  great  many  days  when  it  was  quite  impossible  to  cross 
it,  and  there  was  always  a  certain  amount  of  risk  of 
being  swept  away,  not  to  mention  the  discomfort  of 
beginning  your  day's  work  by  getting  wet  up  to  j^our 
chest ;  but  it  w^as  absolutely  necessary  to  continue  cut- 
ting the  track,  wet  or  dry.  On  the  other  side  of  the 
river,  they  had  tried  to  continue  in  the  North-east  direc- 
tion' and  had  come  to  broken  lumpy  ground  covered 
with  the  densest  jungle  that  we  met  with  in  any  part 
of  the  country.  The  trees  were  not  so  very  big,  indeed 
most  of  them  were  quite  small,  but  they  were  of  a  pecu- 
liarly hard  wood,  which  quickly  blunted  the  kukris  of 
the  Gurkhas  and  they  grew  so  close  together  that  it  was 
quite    impossible    to    push   your    way   between   them. 


CUTTING  A  TRACK  183 

Eventually  a  track  was  cut  to  the  Iwaka  River,  live 
miles  to  the  east  of  the  Wataikwa. 

Some  idea  of  the  difficulty  of  cutting  this  track  may 
be  learnt,  when  it  is  said  that  Rawling  and  Marshall 
with  three  Gurkhas  and  five  natives  were  occupied  for 
three  weeks  in  cutting  five  thousand  yards  of  the  way, 
and  the  whole  distance  of  five  miles  was  cut  in  five 
weeks.  Unfortunately  it  was  labour  in  vain,  the  path 
when  finished  was  too  difficult  for  men  to  traverse  with 
loads.  We  cut  another  track,  which  avoided  the  hilly 
ground  and  brought  us  to  the  Iwaka  close  to  the  point 
reached  by  the  first ;  by  the  new  track,  which  was  cut  in 
a  week,  we  were  able  to  reach  the  Iwaka  in  three  hours' 
walk  from  the  Wataikwa. 


CHAPTER  XIV 

The  Camp  at  the  Wataikwa  River — Malay  Coolies — "  Amok  " — A 
Double  Murder — A  View  of  the  Snow  Mountains — Felling  Trees — 
Floods — Village  washed  Away — The  Wettest  Season — The  Effects 
of  Floods — Beri-heri — Arrival  of  C.  Grant — Departure  of  W. 
Goodfellow. 

//  If  I  were  to  write  a  true  and  complete  account  of  the 
expedition,  I  should  fill  many  pages  with  repeated  stories 
of  rain  and  floods,  sickness  among  the  coolies  and  our 
consequent  inaction ;  but  that  would  be  as  wearisome 
to  the  reader  as  it  was  trying  to  our  own  patience. 
During  July  and  a  part  of  August  we  sent  out  parties  of 
coolies  to  the  Wataikwa  camp,  where  a  considerable 
depot  of  food  was  formed,  but  about  the  middle  of  the 
latter  month  the  number  of  our  coolies  was  reduced  to 
twenty,  of  whom  not  more  than  half  were  capable  of  any 
hard  work,  and  it  became  quite  evident  that  any  further 
progress  in  the  direction  of  the  mountains  was  out  of  the 
question  until  we  should  get  a  fresh  supply  of  men. 

As  the  number  of  coolies  grew  fewer  we  sent  natives 
with  them  to  carry  stores  out  to  the  Wataikwa,  but  the 
supply  of  wilhng  natives  was  very  uncertain  and  it 
became  a  matter  of  some  difficulty  to  keep  up  a  regular 
communication  with  that  camp.  Two  Gurkhas  and  two 
Javanese  soldiers  remained  always  at  the  Wataikwa  and 
one  or  other  of  us  went  out  there  and  stopped  to  make 
natural  history  collections  or  to  superintend  the  cutting 


MALAY   COOLIES  185 

of  the  road  on  the  other  side  of  the  river  for  a  few  weeks 
at  a  time,  while  the  others  were  at  Parimau  or  at  Waka- 
timi.  We  managed  to  continue  this  arrangement  until 
the  end  of  October,  when  it  became  no  longer  possible  to 
keep  an  European  supplied  out  there ;  thenceforward 
until  the  beginning  of  January  the  camp  at  the  Watai- 
kwa  was  occupied  only  by  the  guard  of  Gurkhas  and 
Javanese,  who  in  the  meantime  consumed  nearly  all  the 
stores  that  had  been  so  laboriously  accumulated  there. 

We  often  said  hard  things  to  and  of  our  Malay  coolies, 
but  the  poor  wretches  were  not  to  blame  for  being  such 
incompetent  carriers.  At  their  proper  occupations  of 
carrying  cargo  to  and  from  the  ships  at  Macassar,  or 
working  on  the  boats  of  the  pearl-fishers,  or  doing  odd 
jobs  in  their  native  places,  no  doubt  they  excelled ;  but 
at  struggling  through  the  New  Guinea  jungle  with  even 
the  Hghtest  of  loads  they  were  hopeless  failures  and  the 
wonder  was  that  they  survived  as  long  as  they  did. 
Taking  them  all  round,  the  majority  of  them  worked  as 
well  as  they  could,  and  some  of  them  even  became  quite 
attached  to  us. 

To  a  large  number  of  people  the  name  of  Malay 
immediately  suggests  a  savage  person  who  runs  amok, 
but  you  may  live  for  years  in  a  Malay  country  and  never 
see  a  single  amok.  Fortunately  our  Malays  never  be- 
haved in  this  dangerous  fashion,  though  one  day  a  man 
who  was  suffering  from  fever  went  suddenly  mad  and 
inflicted  a  serious  knife-wound  on  the  body  of  another 
coolie;  the  wounded  man  was  successfully  treated  by 
Marshall,  who  was  happily  but  seldom  required  in  this 
way  to  exercise  his  vocation  as  surgeon.      Malays  are 


i86  PYGMIES  AND  PAPUANS 

indeed  rather  too  handy  with  their  knives  and  a  more 
serious  encounter  took  place  one  day  between  two  of 
Cramer's  convicts.  These  two  men,  a  inandoer  (head 
man)  and  another,  quarrelled  one  morning  about  some 
trifle  connected  with  their  food,  and  before  anybody 
knew  what  was  amiss,  knives  were  out  and  one  was 
chasing  the  other  through  the  camp.  By  a  clever  back- 
ward thrust  the  pursued  man  dealt  the  pursuer  a  deep 
wound  under  the  heart,  but  he  was  unable  to  escape  be- 
fore the  pursuer  had  given  him  too  a  mortal  wound. 
One  died  in  a  few  minutes  and  the  other  during  the 
course  of  the  day,  fortunately  perhaps  for  both  of  them. 

But  ordinarily  our  Malays  were  most  quiet  and 
peaceable  fellows.  Certainly  they  were  liars  and  thieves 
when  it  suited  their  convenience  to  be  so,  but  these 
two  faults  are  almost  universal  in  the  East.  They  were 
enthusiastic  fishermen  (a  sure  sign  of  grace)  and  spent 
many  hours  of  their  leisure  time  in  angling  for  small 
fish,  which  they  very  seldom  caught.  Another  of  their 
virtues,  though  it  sometimes  became  a  little  wearisome, 
was  their  love  of  singing,  in  which  they  indulged  on 
fine  evenings.  The  Ambonese  used  to  sing,  accom- 
panied by  a  soloist  on  a  sort  of  penny  whistle,  some 
really  pretty  songs,  possibly  of  Portuguese  origin,  to 
which  one  could  listen  with  real  pleasure.  But  the 
singing  of  the  Javanese,  usually  in  a  high  falsetto 
voice,  was  a  burden  hardly  to  be  borne. 

In  dealing  with  people  like  the  Malays  it  is  essential 
to  keep  them  constantly  occupied  in  order  to  prevent 
them  from  brooding  too  much  over  their  untoward 
circumstances    and      becoming,     as     they    easily    do, 


FELLING  TREES  187 

physically  ill.  Accordingly,  during  the  times  when  for  one 
reason  or  another  they  were  not  carrying  out  loads  to 
the  Wataikwa  camp,  we  set  them  to  clearing  the  jungle 
about  the  camp  at  Parimau,  and  in  the  course  of  time 
some  ten  or  twelve  acres  were  cleared.  Apart  from 
the  object  of  drying  and  letting  light  into  the  camp, 
this  clearing  was  made  with  the  purpose  of  obtaining 
from  Parimau  a  view  of  the  Snow  Mountains.  This 
latter  object  was  ultimately  attained  and  proved  of 
great  service  to  the  surveyors,  who  were  enabled  to 
fix  more  definitely  the  various  points  of  the  range  seen 
from  a  place  of  which  they  had  already  determined 
the  position  by  astronomical  observations.  To  the 
non-surveyor  too  the  view  of  the  mountains  was  a 
boon,  though  rather  a  tantalising  one,  and  I  used  to 
spend  many  hours  in  the  mornings,  before  the  mists 
had  hidden  them,  in  scanning  the  snows  of  Idenburg 
and  Carstensz  and  planning  routes  by  which  they  might 
be  reached. 

Cutting  down  trees  in  the  New  Guinea  jungle  differs 
from  cutting  dov/n  trees  here  in  that  the  tree  does  not 
always  fall,  even  when  the  trunk  is  cut  completely 
through.  Amongst  the  tops  of  the  trees  grows  an  extra- 
ordinary network  of  rattans  and  other  creepers  of 
sufficient  strength  to  support  a  tree,  even  if  it  is  inclined 
to  fall.  We  spent  some  time  one  day  in  firing  shots 
with  a  rifle  at  a  single  creeper,  thicker  than  a  man's 
arm,  which  was  holding  up  a  tree  without  any  other 
support ;  though  I  beUeve  we  sometimes  pierced  the 
creeper  with  bullets,  it  held  on  and  only  gave  way  some 
hours  later.     As  a  rule  we  did  not  take  the  trouble  to 


i88  PYGMIES  AND   PAPUANS 

cut  the  creepers,  but  if  a  tree  did  not  fall  we  cut  down 
those  about  it  until  they  all  fell  together  in  one  splendid 
crash.  On  sloping  ground  the  best  method  of  felling 
trees  is  to  cut  their  trunks  only  half  way  through  and 
leave  them,  and  then  to  cut  completely  through  a  big 
tree  above  them  in  such  a  way  that  it  ^-;ill  fall  down 
hill  and  complete  the  felling  of  those  below  it. 

Some  of  the  trees  that  we  cut  down  in  our  clearing 
fell  in  the  most  unexpected  directions,  but  though  there 
were  some  narrow  escapes,  there  were  no  accidents. 
The  most  unpleasant  was  a  tree  which  fell  midway 
between  two  houses,  one  full  of  coolies  and  the  other 
full  of  stores,  and  shaved  off  the  projecting  roof  of 
both ;  it  might  easily  have  killed  half-a-dozen  sleeping 
men,  but  the  only  harm  it  did  was  to  fill  the  camp  with 
a  swarm  of  large  and  furiously  biting  ants,  which  had 
had  a  nest  in  its  topmost  branches.  The  natives,  who 
never  tired  of  using  our  steel  axes,  helped  a  good  deal 
in  felling  the  trees  and  in  this  way  some  of  them  earned 
large  quantities  of  coloured  beads. 

Another  occupation  for  the  coolies  in  their  idle 
moments,  and  at  the  same  time  a  very  necessary  work, 
was  the  business  of  keeping  the  camp  in  a  state  of  repair. 
When  the  high  river  bank  opposite  the  village  of  Parimau 
was  chosen  for  a  camping  ground,  it  was  thought  that 
floods  at  all  events  could  do  no  harm.  The  houses 
nearest  to  the  river  were  built  five  or  six  yards  back  from 
the  edge  of  the  bank,  which  was  there  about  fifteen  feet 
above  the  usual  level  of  the  water,  and  it  seemed  quite  out 
of  the  question  that  the  river  could  ever  invade  the  camp. 
It  was  necessary,  in  order  to  prevent  it  from  becoming 


THE    CAMP    AT    PARIMAU.       A    PREC 


VLIIu.N    AL.AI.N£.i    iLoui;.- 


SECURING  THE  CAMP  189 

the  dumping  ground  of  camp-refuse,  to  clear  away  the 
rank  vegetation  that  grew  on  the  bank  down  to  the 
water's  edge,  and  this  was  the  beginning  of  what  almost 
ended  in  our  dow^ifall.  After  the  tangle  of  creepers  had 
been  removed,  the  first  rains  began  to  wash  the  bank 
away,  and  when  the  river  rose  three  or  four  feet,  as  it 
speedily  did  after  a  few  hours'  downpour,  it  undermined 
the  lower  part  of  the  bank  and  large  landslips  took  place 
from  above. 

In  the  course  of  a  few  weeks  several  yards  of  land 
disappeared,  and  the  safety  of  our  houses,  which  had 
come  to  be  almost  overhanging  the  river,  was  seriously 
imperilled.  To  save  them  we  erected  a  strong  pahsade 
of  long  poles  thrust  deeply  into  the  bottom  of  the  bank 
and  secured  them  by  rattan  ropes,  which  passed  through 
our  house  and  were  attached  to  posts  at  the  back.  The 
interval  between  the  pahsade  and  the  bank  was 
laboriously  filled  up  with  shingle  from  the  river  bed,  and 
this  provided  a  never-ending  occupation,  because  the 
stones  were  always  trickling  through  the  palisade  and 
required  to  be  renewed.  The  natives  were  of  great 
assistance  to  us  in  this  work,  and  on  one  occasion — it  was 
the  only  time  that  we  ever  persuaded  them  to  come  into 
our  camp,  although  we  lived  within  a  few  yards  of  their 
village— the  women  and  children  came  and  helped  in  the 
work  and  thoroughly  enjoyed  themselves. 

It  was  well  that  we  took  these  precautions,  for  as  the 
weather  grew  steadily  wetter  and  wetter  (though  that 
seemed  hardly  possible)  through  July  and  August,  so  the 
river  rose  higher  and  higher  and  each  succeeding  flood 
w^as  greater  than  the  last.     The  night  of  the  iS-igth  of 


igo  PYGMIES  AND  PAPUANS 

August  was  one  that  I  shall  never  forget :  it  had  been 
raining  steadily  for  some  days  and  the  river  was  fairly 
full,  but  about  sunset  on  the  i8th  the  rain  really  began 
to  come  down  solidly,  as  it  does  in  the  Tropics.  About 
midnight  a  terrific  thunderstorm  began,  which  continued 
with  almost  incessant  thunder  and  lightning  until  dawn, 
but  long  before  this  the  river  had  risen  many  feet  and 
was  already  threatening  the  village.  As  soon  as  the 
waters  began  to  rise  the  natives  appeared  at  the  edge  of 
the  river  with  blazing  torches,  while  canoes  were  baled  out 
and  brought  nearer  to  the  shore.  When  the  flood,  rising 
visibly  by  that  time,  reached  the  lowest  house,  a  most 
extraordinary  Bedlam  broke  loose  and  it  sounded  as  if  all 
the  people  in  the  village  were  being  drowned.  The  men 
all  shouted  at  once,  the  women  and  children  screamed 
and  the  dogs  whined  and  howled.  By  the  light  of  the 
flashes  of  lightning  we  could  see  them  scurrying  hither 
and  thither,  bundling  all  their  belongings  into  the  canoes 
and  trying  to  save  the  roofs  and  matting  walls  of  their 
huts  by  throwing  them  among  the  branches  of  the  trees 
at  the  back  of  the  village.  In  a  very  short  time  all  the 
houses  were  swamped  and  the  people  were  in  their 
canoes,  about  twenty  in  all,  moored  to  the  branches  of 
the  trees  along  the  edge  of  the  jungle,  where  they  kept 
up  an  unceasing  turmoil  until  daylight. 

In  the  meantime  our  own  position  was  not  very 
secure.  The  river  was  swirling  down  at  ten  or  twelve 
miles  an  hour  and  bringing  with  it  huge  tree-trunks, 
which  carried  away  our  fleet  of  canoes  and  threatened 
to  destroy  our  protecting  palisade.  If  that  had  gone 
nothing  could  have  prevented  our  houses   from  falling 


THE    MIMIKA    AT    PARIMAU.       LOW    WATE 


THE  SAME  IN  FLOOD.         THE   VILLAGE    HAS    UlSAl'PEAKED    AND    THE    PEOPLE    ARE 
IN    CANOES. 


FLOODS  191 

into  the  river,  but  happily  it  held  well.  The  whole  of 
the  jungle  on  our  side  of  the  river  was  under  water  and 
all  sorts  of  creatures  sought  the  shelter  of  our  houses, 
which  occupied  the  highest  position.  When  even  these 
were  flooded,  armies  of  ants  and  beetles  and  other  insects 
climbed  up  our  beds  and  other  furniture  to  escape  from 
drowning,  moths  washed  out  of  their  resting  places 
fluttered  aimlessly  about,  and  a  family  of  rats,  which 
inhabited  my  hut,  ran  about  squeaking  in  terror. 

Beyond  the  loss  of  our  canoes,  some  of  which  were 
afterwards  recovered,  no  great  damage  was  done,  and 
the  flood  fell  almost  as  quickly  as  it  had  risen.  Soon 
after  daybreak  the  ground,  on  which  the  village  had 
been,  began  to  appear  above  the  falling  water,  and  it 
was  seen  that  not  one  stick  of  the  huts  was  standing. 
But  the  natives  were  anxious  to  get  out  of  their  canoes, 
and  by  mid-day  half  the  huts  in  the  village  were  re-built 
with  the  fragments  that  they  had  crammed  into  the 
canoes  or  had  put  up  into  the  trees.  During  the  next 
two  or  three  days  they  brought  back  quantities  of  hous- 
ing materials,  which  had  been  carried  for  miles  down 
the  river,  and  very  soon  the  village  resumed  its  normal 
appearance. 

On  two  subsequent  occasions  in  the  following  month 
the  village  was  completely  swept  away  by  floods,  and  it 
was  a  matter  of  surprise  to  us  that  they  did  not  adopt 
the  custom  of  their  neighbours  the  Tapiro  pygmies  and 
build  their  houses  on  piles.  The  third  great  flood  swept 
away  the  sandbank  on  which  the  village  stood,  and  they 
were  accordingly  compelled  to  build  their  houses  on  the 
top  of  a  high  bank  further  down  the  river.     Such  a  place 


192  PYGMIES  AND   PAPUANS 

as  that  necessitated  cutting  down  a  number  of  big  trees, 
but  now  that  a  great  many  of  them  have  the  steel  axes, 
which  we  gave  them,  it  is  to  be  hoped  that  they  have 
learnt  to  place  their  dwelhngs  in  safer  positions,  even 
though  it  costs  them  a  little  extra  labour. 

The  wet  season,  which  we  hoped  had  reached  its 
maximum  of  wetness  in  July,  when  sometimes  for 
days  together  the  rain  hardly  ceased,  continued  in  a 
series  of  greater  or  less  floods  through  the  months  of 
August  and  September.  Often  it  was  impossible  to 
move  a  yard  from  the  camp,  and  without  books  life 
would  have  been  almost  insupportable.  On  one  of 
the  wettest  of  those  days  I  came  across  the  follow- 
ing passage,  which  seemed  to  describe  the  situation 
exactly  : — 

"With  five  .  .  .  what  we  call  qualities  of  bad, 
Worse,  worst,  and  yet  worse  still,  and  still  worse  yet." 

It  need  hardly  be  said  that  this  very  disagreeable 
season  produced  ill  effects  on  all  the  members  of  the 
expedition.  The  Europeans  became  depressed,  and  if 
we  were  not  sick  of  hfe  itself,  we  were  certainly  sick  of 
New  Guinea,  while  in  the  case  of  the  coolies  and  soldiers, 
who  were  accustomed  to  sunnier  climates,  and  who  had 
no  interest  or  goal  to  look  forward  to  in  the  country,  the 
results  were  disastrous  indeed.  Hardly  a  man  escaped 
fever  of  greater  or  less  severity  and  chills  brought  on  by 
the  unceasing  rain  and  the  consequent  impossibility  of 
securing  a  change  of  dry  clothing  Several  men  suffered 
too  from  dysentery  of  a  very  intractable  type,  which 
completely  incapacitated  them  from  any  further  service. 

But  worse  than  either  fever  or  dysentery   was  the 


BERI-BERI  193 

beri-beri,  which  made  its  appearance  after  we  had  been 
in  the  country  for  a  few  months.  This  is  not  the  place 
to  give  a  scientific  account  of  beri-beri ;  it  will  suffice  to 
say  that  it  is  a  disease,  of  which  the  most  important 
feature  is  a  degeneration  of  the  nervous  system.  The 
results  of  this  are  seen  in  the  curious  and  characteristic 
walk,  loss  of  sensation  in  various  parts  of  the  body, 
interference  with  the  circulation  and  swelling  of  the 
body  and  particularly  of  the  face  and  limbs,  and  in  very 
many  cases  sudden  heart  failure.  It  is  almost  con- 
clusively proved  now  that  the  cause  of  the  disease  is  an 
error  of  diet,  and  it  appears  to  be  certain  that  the  fine 
milling  and  polishing  of  the  rice,  which  forms  the  staple 
food  of  the  natives  of  so  many  countries  in  the  East, 
deprives  the  rice  of  a  very  necessary  constituent  as  a 
food.  These  people,  who  grind  their  own  rice  and  do  not 
mill  or  polish  it  finely,  but  leave  a  small  portion  of  the 
husk  still  adhering  to  the  grain,  are  free  from  beri-beri. 
The  disease  varies  in  severity  from  time  to  time  and 
from  place  to  place,  but  at  its  best  it  is  a  very  deadly 
scourge  and  it  causes  a  very  large  number  of  deaths. 
Occasionally  it  occurs  in  an  epidemic  form,  but  fortu- 
nately that  did  not  happen  to  our  expedition. 

In  the  six  months  from  the  beginning  of  June  to 
the  end  of  November,  thirty-nine  men  shewed  definite 
symptoms  of  beri-beri,  and  seven  deaths  were  directly 
attributable  to  this  cause.  Our  coolies,  who  came  from 
the  Eastern  islands  of  the  Archipelago,  were  much  less 
susceptible  to  the  disease  than  were  the  convicts  and 
soldiers,  most  of  whom  came  from  Java  and  Sumatra  ; 
these    latter    contracted  the   disease    in   a   much   more 

o 


194  PYGMIES  AND   PAPUANS 

serious  form  and  most  of  the  fatal  cases  took  place 
among  them.  It  was  a  curious  circumstance  that  at 
Parimau,  which  was  in  most  respects  by  far  the  healthier 
place,  many  more  cases  of  beri-beri  occurred  than  at 
Wakatimi,  where  it  is  doubtful  if  any  cases  originated. 

Still  more  remarkable  was  the  case  of  the  camp  on 
the  Wataikwa  River,  which  ought  to  have  been  the 
healthiest  place  we  occupied  anywhere  in  the  country. 
For  several  months  a  guard  of  two  Javanese  and  two 
Gurkhas  was  kept  there  to  look  after  the  store  of  food, 
and  though  they  were  very  frequently  changed  and 
replaced  by  others,  several  of  the  Javanese  developed 
beri-beri  and  two  of  them  died.  The  Gurkhas,  perhaps 
because  they  led  more  active  lives  than  the  Javanese, 
remained  free  of  the  disease  until  one  of  them,  Havildar 
Mahesur,  a  most  useful  man,  had  the  misfortune  to 
damage  one  of  his  eyes ;  it  was  necessary  for  him  to 
remain  in  the  darkness  of  his  tent  for  some  days  and 
within  a  fortnight  he  developed  all  the  signs  of  beri-beri 
so  that  he  had  to  be  sent  away  from  the  country. 

A  welcome  interruption  in  those  dreary  months  was 
caused  by  the  arrival  at  Parimau  on  August  26  of  canoes 
bringing  Mr.  C.  H.  B.  Grant,  who  had  come  out  from 
England  as  naturalist  to  the  expedition  in  the  place  of 
W.  Stalker.  He  brought  with  him  two  Dayak  collectors  * 
and  a  quantity  of  various  and  excellent  stores,  and  a 
large  mail,  the  first  we  had  received  since  the  end  of  May. 
Shortridge  had  arrived  in  the  country  by  the  same  ship 

*  The  services  of  these  two  men  were  secured  to  the  expedition 
through  the  generositj^  of  Mr.  H.  C.  Robinson,  Director  of  the  Museums 
of  the  Federated  Malay  States 


SICKNESS  195 

on  his  return  from  Australia,  but  his  change  of  air  had 
not  complete^  cured  him  and  he  was  compelled  to  leave 
the  country  at  the  end  of  November.  Goodfellow,  whose 
fever  continued  almost  without  interruption,  became  so 
weak  that  he  also  was  obliged  to  leave  the  country  early 
in  October.  From  that  time  we  had  only  a  dozen  men 
and  no  forward  movement  was  possible  until  the  arrival 
of  our  third  batch  of  coolies  on  the  22nd  December.  By 
the  same  boat  that  brought  the  new  coolies  in  December 
came  instructions  to  Captain  Rawling  to  take  over  the 
command  of  the  expedition. 


CHAPTER  XV 

Pygmies  visit  Parimau — Description  of  Tapiro  Pygmies — Colour — 
Hair — Clothing — Orjtaments — Netted  Bags — Flint  Knives — Bone 
Daggers — Sleeping  Mats — Fire  Stick — Method  of  making  Fire — 
Cultivation  of  Tobacco — Manner  of  Smoking — Bows  and  Arrows — 
Village  of  the  Pygmies — Terraced  Ground — Houses  on  Piles — 
Village  Headynan — Our  Efforts  to  see  the  Women — Language  and 
Voices — Their  Intelligence — Counting — Their  Geographical  Dis- 
tribution. 

The  Pygmy  people — or  Tapiro  as  they  are  called  by  the 
Papuans — whom  we  saw  in  March,  visited  us  occasionally 
in  small  parties  of  three  or  four  at  Parimau  and  later  we 
went  to  one  of  their  villages  in  the  hills,  to  which  they 
were  reluctantly  persuaded  to  show  us  the  way.  When 
they  come  down  to  Parimau  they  were  warmly  welcomed 
by  the  Papuans,  with  whom  they  seemed  to  be  on  very 
friendly  terms,  and  stayed  in  their  houses  for  two  or 
three  days.  They  appeared  to  be  particularly  attractive 
to  the  women,  one  of  whom  we  saw  affectionately  embrace 
a  Tapiro  on  his  arrival ;  it  was  said  that  she  kissed  him, 
but  if  that  was  so  it  was  the  only  occasion  on  which  that 
form  of  endearment  was  seen  practised  by  the  Papuans. 
It  was  noticeable  that  when  they  arrived  at  Parimau 
they  had  not  their  bows  and  arrows,  which  they  always 
carry  elsewhere  ;  probably  they  had  left  them  hidden  in 
the  jungle  before  they  came  to  the  village.  Similarl}^ 
when  we  went  up  to  visit  the  Tapiro,  the  Papuans  who 


A    TAPIRO    PYGMY 


/ 


THE  TAPIRO   PYGMIES  197 

were  with  us  left  their  spears  behind  them  at  the  last 
camp  before  we  reached  their  village. 

Their  visits  were  always  very  welcome  because  they 
brought  with  them  from  the  hills  quantities  of  tobacco 
to  exchange  with  the  natives  of  Parimau,  who  grow 
none  themselves.  At  first  they  were  very  shy  of  cross- 
ing the  river,  but  by  the  offer  of  gifts  we  persuaded 
them  to  come  into  our  camp,  where  we  had  better 
opportunities  of  observing  them  than  in  the  crowded 
village. 

At  one  time  or  another  we  took  measurements  of 
40  adult  men,  most  of  them  men  in  the  prime  of  Hfe, 
and  their  average  height  was  found  to  be  144'g  cm.  (4  ft. 
9  in.).  It  is  possible  that  one  or  two  rather  tall  men 
of  150  cm.  and  upwards,  whose  appearance  led  us  to 
suspect  that  they  were  Tapiro-Papuan  half-breeds,  may 
have  been  included  among  those  measured,  but  the 
correction  of  that  error  will  not  appreciably  reduce 
the  true  average  height.  The  height  of  the  smallest 
man  measured  was  132-6  cm.  By  contrast  with  the 
Papuans  they  looked  extremely  small  and,  what  was 
rather  a  curious  thing,  though  many  of  our  Malay 
coolies  were  no  taller  than  they,  the  coolies  looked 
merely  under-sized  and  somewhat  stunted  men,  while 
the  Tapiro  looked  emphatically  little  men.  They  are 
cleanly-built,  active-looking  httle  fellows,  rather  big  in 
the  buttocks  as  mountain  people  are  apt  to  be,  and 
their  well-made  calves  are  noticeable  in  contrast  with 
the  long,  straight  legs  of  the  Papuans.  They  walk 
with  an  easy  swinging  gait,  the  knees  a  little  bent  and 
the  body  slightly  leaning  forwards. 


198       \         PYGMIES  AND   PAPUANS 

The  colour  of  their  skin  is  paler  than  that  of  the 
Papuans— some  of  them  indeed  are  almost  yellow — but 
they  are  so  indescribably  dirty  that  it  is  not  easy  to 
know  what  is  their  true  colour ;  they  have  also  an  ugly 
habit  of  smearing  their  faces  with  a  black  oily  mixture. 
Neither  tattooing  nor  cicatrization  appears  to  be  prac- 
tised by  them.  The  septum  of  the  nose  is  always 
pierced  and  in  it  they  occasionally  wear  a  curved  boar's 
tusk  planed  down  to  a  thin  slip,  or  a  short  piece  of 
straight  bone  ;  the  alac  nasi  are  not  pierced.  The  nose 
is  straight  and  very  wide  at  the  nostrils.  The  upper  lip 
of  many  of  the  men  is  long  and  curiously  convex. 

The  hair  is  short  and  w^oolly  and  black ;  many  of 
the  men  give  a  lighter  shade  to  the  hair  with  lime  or 
mud,  and  in  two  or  three  cases  it  seemed  to  be  of  a 
brown  colour  without  any  p.rtificial  treatment.  They 
appear  to  begin  to  grow  bald  at  a  comparatively  early 
age.  The  younger  men  grow  whiskers  and  the  older 
have  short  bushy  black  beards.  There  is  a  good  deal 
of  short  downy  black  hair  scattered  about  the  body. 
Their  eyes  are  noticeably  larger  and  rounder  than  those  of 
the  Papuans,  and  there  is  in  them  something  sleepy  and 
dog-like  which  gives  a  pathetic  expression  to  their  faces.* 

When  we  first  saw  them  one  or  two  men  wore 
curious  helm£yike_£a£S_of_plaited  fibres  and  another 
had  a  strip  of  fur  round  his  head  ;  otherwise  they  are 
completely  naked  except  for  the  remarkable  gourd 
case  described  above  (p.  161).  Strangely  enough  they 
are  extremely  modest  and  unwilling  to  expose  them- 
selves ;  when  with  some  difficulty  we  had  persuaded 
*  For  their  cranial  measurements  see  Appe?idix. 


DRESS  AND   ORNAMENTS  199 

a  man  to  part  with  his  case,  he  would  not  remove  it 
then  and  there,  but  ahvays  disappeared  into  the  jungle  and 
returned  after  an  interval  decently  covered  with  leaves. 

Their  ornaments  are  few  and  simple ;  a  number  of 
men  wear  arm-bands  and  leg-bands  of  plaited  fibre 
similar  to  those  worn  by  the  Papuans,  and  several  of 
them  w^ear  necklaces  of  seeds,  short  pieces  of  bamboo, 
scraps  of  broken  shell,  teeth  of  wallabies  and  (in  one 
instance)  the  bones  of  a  small  mammal.  The  lobes  of 
both  ears  are  pierced  and  a  few  men  wear  in  one  ear  an 
ornament  made  of  a  small  piece  of  gourd  to  which  are 
attached  seeds,  scraps  of  fur,  claws  of  birds  and  other 
ornamental  odds  and  ends.  One  young  man,  with  more 
originality  than  the  rest,  thrust  through  his  front  hair  a 
piece  of  sharpened  bone,  which  projected  downwards 
over  his  face  and  gave  him  a  most  distinguished  appear- 
ance (see  Frontispiece). 

The  most  elaborate  and  ornamental  of  their  posses- 
sions are  the  bags,  which  every  man  carries.  Most  of  ^  ^y 
them  carry  two,  a  large  bag  like  a  haversack  slung 
across  the  shoulders  and  usually  hanging  down  the  back,  ^Oc--^ 
and  a  small  bag  only  a  few  inches  square  slung  round 
his  neck  and  hanging  down  on  the  chest.  They  are 
made  of  fine  fibres  of  different  colours,  cleverly  netted  * 
in  ornamental  patterns,  and  they  show  the  best  attempt 
at  decorative  art  that  we  saw  in  the  country.  In  these 
bags  the  Pygmy  man  keeps  all  his  portable  property. 
The  small  wallet  round  the  neck  contains  his  bone  and 

*  The  stitch  used  is  a  "  figure  of  eight."  An  exactly  similar 
pattern  is  used  by  the  natives  near  Humboldt  Bay,  North  Dutch 
New  Guinea,  in  making  caps.  See  Van  der  Sande,  Nova  Guinea, 
Vol.  III.  Illustration,  p.  ^7- 


^ 


200  PYGMIES  AND   PAPUANS 

shell  ornaments  when  they  are  not  in  use,  and  his  knives ; 
these  latter  are  sharp  flakes  of  a  flint-like  stone  shaped 
y  exactly  hke  the  flint-knives  and  scrapers  that  are  found 
in  this  country;  they  are  used  for  scraping  down  the 
wood  of  their  bows  and  for  pointing  and  ornamenting 
their  arrows  as  well  as  for  other  cutting  purposes,  and  it 
is  profoundly  interesting  in  these  days  of  steel  to  see 
people  still  using  the  implements  of  prehistoric  man. 
One  or  two  men  also  carried  in  their  wallets  a  short 
dagger  made  of  a  pointed  cassowary's  bone,  and  they 
explained  to  us  by  graphic  gestures  how  they  were 
accustomed  to  shoot  a  cassowary  with  their  arrows  and 
then  after  a  long  chase  to  stab  it  with  the  dagger. 

The  contents  of  the  larger  bag  usually  are  the  sleep- 
ing mat,  the  fire-stick  and  rattan,  and  tobacco.  The 
sleeping  mat  is  a  fabric  of  pandanus  leaves,  which  can 
be  used  either  as  a  mat  to  lie  upon  or  as  a  shelter  from 
the  rain ;  it  measures  usually  about  six  by  three  feet  and 
is  neatly  folded  to  be  carried  in  the  bag.  The  manufac- 
ture of  these  mats  is  always  the  work  of  the  women  and 
is  a  very  ingenious  process.  The  long  ribbon-like  leaves 
of  the  pandanus  are  split  horizontally  into  two  strips ; 
the  shiny  upper  one  alone  is  used  and  the  lower  is 
thrown  away.  Strips  of  two  leaves  are  placed  with  their 
split  surfaces  together  and  their  shiny  surfaces  outwards, 
and  then  numbers  of  these  pairs  of  split  leaves  are  sown 
together,  edge  to  edge,  until  the  mat  is  of  the  required 
size.  Thus  the  mat  is  made  entirely  of  the  outer 
surfaces  of  the  leaves;  it  is  very  strong  and  is  quite 
impervious  to  rain. 

By  far  the  most  interesting  of  the  possessions  of  these 


MAKING  FIRE  201 

people  is  the  apparatus  for  making  fire,  which  consists 
of  three  different  parts,  the  spUt  stick,  the  rattan,  and 
the  tinder.  The  spht  stick  is  a  short  stick  of  wood  an 
inch  or  so  in  diameter,  which  is  spht  at  one  end  and  is 
held  open  by  a  small  pebble  placed  between  the  split 
halves.  The  rattan  is  a  long  piece  of  split  rattan  wound 
upon  itself  into  a  neatly  coiled  ring  (see  illustration  p.  202), 
and  the  tinder  is  usually  a  lump  of  the  fibrous  sheath 
of  a  palm  shoot  and  sometimes  a  piece  of  dried  moss. 

The  method  of  making  fire  is  as  follows  :  In  the  split 
of  the  stick,  between  the  stone  which  holds  the  split  ends 
apart  and  the  solid  stick,  is  placed  a  small  fragment  of 
tinder.  The  operator — if  one  may  use  so  modern  a  word 
in  describing  so  ancient  a  practice — places  the  stick  upon 
the  ground  and  secures  the  solid,  i.e.  the  unsplit  end  with 
his  foot.  Then,  having  unwound  about  a  yard  of  the 
rattan,  he  holds  the  coil  in  one  hand  and  the  free  end  in 
the  other  and  looping  the  middle  of  it  underneath  the 
stick  at  the  point  where  the  tinder  is  placed  he  proceeds 
to  saw  it  backwards  and  forwards  with  extreme  rapidity. 
In  a  short  space  of  time,  varying  from  ten  to  thirty 
seconds,  the  rattan  snaps  and  he  picks  up  the  stick  with 
the  tinder,  which  has  probably  by  this  time  begun  to 
smoulder,  and  blows  it  into  flame.  At  the  point  where 
the  rattan  rubs  on  the  stick  a  deep  cut  is  made  on  the 
stick,  and  at  each  successive  use  the  stick  is  split  a  little 
further  down  and  the  rattan  is  rubbed  a  little  further 
back,  so  that  a  well-used  fire-stick  is  marked  with  a 
number  of  dark  burnt  rings.  It  was  only  with  the 
greatest  difficulty  and  after  many  attempts  that  we 
succeeded   in   producing   fire   in   this   manner,   but  the 


202  PYGMIES  AND   PAPUANS 

Tapiro  do  it  with  the  utmost  ease  and  they  scorned  our 
boxes  of  matches,  which  we  offered  them  in  exchange  for 
their  apparatus,  and  showed  no  signs  of  surprise  at  a 
suddenly  kindled  match.  * 

The  most  frequent  use  of  the  fire-stick  is  in  lighting 
the  tobacco,  of  which  nearly  every  man  carries  a  supply 
in  his  larger  bag.  These  people  cultivate  tobacco  in 
sufficient  quantities  to  be  able  to  supply  the  Papuans  of 
the  low  country.  The  leaves  are  dried  and  neatly  rolled 
up  into  long  bundles  weighing  three  or  four  pounds  ;  the 
flavour  is  strong  and  rather  bitter,  but  it  is  not  un- 
pleasant to  smoke.  The  Tapiro  smoke  tobacco  chiefly 
as  cigarettes,  using  for  the  wrapper  a  thin  slip  of  dry 
pandanus  leaf.  When,  as  is  often  the  case,  the  wrapper 
is  very  narrow  and  the  tobacco  is  inclined  to  escape,  the 
man  smokes  his  cigarette  in  a  pecuhar  manner ;  he  holds 
the  unlighted  end  in  his  fingers  and  with  his  mouth 
draws  out  the  smoke  from  between  the  edges  of  the 
wrapper  in  the  middle  of  the  cigarette,  this  he  continues 
to  do  until  the  cigarette  is  about  half  consumed  when  he 
puts  the  end  in  his  mouth  in  the  ordinary  way. 

The  Tapiro  also  smoke  tobacco  in  a  pipe  in  a  fashion 

of  their  own.     The  pipe  is  a  simple  cylinder  of  bamboo 

about  an  inch  in  diameter  and  a  few  inches  in  length. 

A  small  plug  of  tobacco  is  rolled  up  and  pushed  down  to 

about  the  middle  of  the  pipe,  and  the  smoker  holding  it 

upright  between  his  lips  draws  out  the  smoke  from  below. 

*  I  am  informed  by  Mr.  H.  Balfour,  of  the  Pitt  Rivers  Museum, 
Oxford,  that  a  similar  method  of  making  fire  is  employed  by  people 
in  Assam,  the  Chittagong  Hills,  at  certain  places  in  the  Malay  Penin- 
sula, in  Borneo,  at  numerous  places  in  different  parts  of  New  Guinea, 
and  at  one  place  in  West  Africa. 


MAKING    FIRE  :    (z)    BLOWIN 


WEAPONS   OF  THE  PYGMIES  203 

The  Tapiro  never  make  large  cigars  like  those  of  the 
Papuans  of  the  Mimika,  and  the  Papuans  never  smoke 
pipes,  nor  did  the}^  take  readily  to  those  that  we  gave 
them. 

Besides  the  bone  daggers  mentioned  above  the  only 
weapon  of  the  Tapiro  are  the  bow  and  arrows,  which  they 
always  carry.  The  bows  are  a  very  little  shorter  than 
those  of  the  Papuans,  but  otherwise  they  are  very 
similar,  viz.  :  straight  tapered  strips  of  hard  wood 
"  strung  "  with  a  slip  of  rattan.  The  arrows  are  shorter 
and  lighter  and  of  finer  workmanship  than  those  of  the 
Mimika  Papuans,  but  like  those  they  have  neither 
feathers  nor  nocks.  The  best,  which  they  were  not  at 
all  anxious  to  sell  to  us,  are  ornamented  with  simple 
carvings  and  are  tipped  with  a  very  sharp  point  of  black 
wood.  An  arrow  which  ended  in  a  curious  blunt  lump 
of  wood  was  used,  so  we  understood,  for  shooting  birds. 

The  Tapiro  have  no  spears  and  neither  they  nor  the 
Mimika  Papuans  know  the  use  of  the  sling.  They  set 
quantities  of  httle  nooses  for  small  animals,  and  we  once 
found  a  rattan  noose  fixed  to  a  root  of  a  tree  and  evi- 
dently set  with  the  purpose  of  catching  a  pig. 

Many  of  them  carry  in  their  bags  a  small  Jew's  harp, 
made  of  a  thin  piece  of  bamboo,  from  which  they  extract 
faint  music  that  is  pleasing  to  their  ears.  Two  men 
possessed  instruments  of  a  more  original  design  :  these 
were  made  of  pieces  of  polished  bone  fitting  together  in 
such  a  way  that  when  one  was  turned  round  over  the 
other  it  produced  peculiarly  discordant  squeaks,  which 
were  highly  appreciated  by  the  player. 

Wamberi  Merbiri  or  Wamberimi,  the  village  of  the 


204  PYGMIES  AND   PAPUANS 

Tapiro  which  was  visited  b}^  different  members  of  our 
party  on  three  separate  occasions,  is  situated  on  the 
lower  slopes  of  Mount  Tapiro,  the  mountain  nearest  to 
Parimau,  at  about  1800  feet  above  the  sea.  It  is  in 
fact  within  a  stone's  throw  of  that  large  clearing  which 
Rawling  and  I  had  reached  with  so  much  difficulty,  but 
when  approached  by  the  track  used  by  the  people  them- 
selves it  is  an  easy  walk  of  two  or  three  hours  from  the 
Kapare  River. 

The  track  climbs  by  a  steep  almost  knife-edged  ridge 
densely  covered  with  forest  to  the  rounded  shoulder  of 
the  hill  where  the  village  lies.  The  first  sign  of  the 
village  is  a  flimsy  fence  of  tall  poles,  which  bars  the  track 
and  extends  for  a  short  distance  on  either  side  of  it. 
Passing  through  a  narrow  opening  in  the  fence  you  come 
to  a  cleared  space  occupied  by  three  or  four  houses.  A 
couple  of  hundred  yards  beyond  these  and  separated 
from  them  by  a  small  gully,  which  is  bridged  by  an 
enormous  fallen  tree,  is  a  second  group  of  six  houses, 
constituting  the  village  of  Wamberi  Merbiri. 

The  houses  are  scattered  about  over  three  or  four 
acres  of  steeply  sloping  ground,  from  w^hich  most  of  the 
trees  have  been  cleared.  Between  the  houses  the  ground 
has  been  levelled  in  three  places  to  form  almost  level 
terraces,  measuring  about  fifteen  by  five  yards,  com- 
pletely cleared  of  vegetation  and  covered  with  small 
stones.  These  terraces  are  held  up  on  the  lower  side  by 
logs  and  stumps  of  trees,  and  the  labour  of  making  them 
by  people  whose  only  tools  are  stone  axes  and  pieces  of 
wood  is  difficult  to  imagine  ;  they  are  used,  so  far  as  we 
could  understand,  for  dances  and  other  ceremonies. 


HOUSES  OF  THE   PYGMIES  205 

The  houses  are  greatly  superior  to  those  of  the  Mimika 
Papuans,  from  which  they  differ  in  every  respect.  They 
are  built  on  piles,  which  raise  the  floor  of  the  house  from 
four  to  ten  feet  above  the  ground  according  to  the  steep- 
ness of  the  slope  underneath.  The  walls  are  made  of  long 
laths  of  split  wood  with  big  sheets  of  bark  fastened  on 
to  the  outside.  The  roof  is  a  fairly  steep  pitched  angular 
structure  of  split  wood  covered  with  over-lapping  leaves 
of  the  Fan-palm.  The  floor  is  made  like  the  walls  and 
covered  with  large  sheets  of  bark ;  in  the  middle  of  the 
floor  is  a  square  sunken  box  filled  with  sand  or  earth  in 
which  a  fire  is  kept  burning,  and  over  the  fire  hanging 
from  the  roof  is  a  simple  rack,  on  which  wood  is  placed 
to  dry.  The  house  consists  of  one  nearly  square  com- 
partment, measuring  about  ten  feet  in  each  direction. 
The  way  of  entering  is  by  a  steep  ladder  made  of  two 
posts  tied  closely  together,  which  leads  to  a  narrow 
platform  or  balcony  in  front  of  the  front  wall  of  the 
house.  There  are  no  notches  on  the  posts,  but  the 
lashings  of  rattan,  which  tie  them  together,  answer 
the  purpose  of  steps  or  rungs  for  the  feet.  As  well  as 
in  the  excellence  of  their  houses,  the  Tapiro  show  another 
point  of  superiority  over  the  neighbouring  Papuans  in 
their  habit  of  using  a  common  retiring  place  at  the  edge 
of  a  small  stream. 

There  was  an  old  man  in  the  village,  bald  and  white- 
bearded,  and  horribly  disfigured  by  disease,*  who  ap- 
peared to  be  unquestionably  the  headman  of  the  place. 
He  sat  in  one  of  the  huts  all  day  and  shouted  shrilly  to 
the  other  men  who  were  constantly  going  in  and  out  to 

*  I  saw  three  men  who  showed  unmistakable  signs  of  syphihs. 


2o6  PYGMIES  AND   PAPUANS 

speak  to  him,  and  I  think  it  was  due  to  him  that  we 
were  never  aUowed  to  see  the  women.  We  were  par- 
ticularly anxious  to  see  some  of  the  women  of  the  tribe, 
and  we  offered  them  large  rewards  of  knives  and  axes 
merely  for  the  sight  of  them.  The  other  men  were 
willing  enough  to  produce  the  women,  and  several  times 
they  were  on  the  point  of  fetching  them,  but  were 
always  prevented  by  the  old  man.  Finally  we  had  a 
personal  interview  with  him,  and  held  out  three  bright 
axes,  which  made  his  one  eye  glisten  with  greed,  but 
he  still  remained  obdurate. 

Though  we  never  saw  the  women  I  have  no  doubt 
that  they  saw  us ;  at  night  we  saw  their  camp  fires  up 
on  the  hillside  opposite  the  village,  and  when  we  departed 
we  heard  their  shrill  voices  quite  close  to  us  before  we 
had  gone  a  quarter  of  a  mile  from  the  place.  They  had 
no  reason  to  distrust  us  when  we  assured  them  that  our 
only  wish  was  to  see  their  women,  and  I  think  the  reason 
for  their  keeping  them  hidden  was  the  presence  of  the 
Papuans  who  accompanied  us  from  Parimau.  The  supply 
of  Papuan  women  is  very  scanty,  and  it  is  likely  enough 
that  the  men  would  seize  any  chance  of  abducting  a 
Tapiro  woman,  as  indeed  they  boasted  of  having 
done. 

The  language  of  these  Tapiro  pygmy  people  is  cer- 
tainly different  from  that  of  the  Papuans,  but  I  regret  to 
say  that  we  were  unable  to  make  even  the  smallest 
vocabulary  of  it.  Their  voices  are  rather  high-pitched 
and  nasal,  and  many  of  their  words  contain  curious 
throat  sounds,  which  I  was  not  able  to  spell  much  less 
to   imitate.      In   talking  the}^  have  a  curious  habit  of 


COUNTING  207 

•  protruding  the  lips,  which  recalls  in  a  striking  manner  a 
familiar  grimace  of  the  anthropoid  apes. 

They  appeared  to  understand  a  good  deal  that  the 
Papuans  said  to  them,  but  I  doubt  if  the  latter  under- 
stood them  when  they  were  talking  amongst  themselves. 
When  we  were  trying  to  persuade  the  headman  to  allow 
the  women  to  be  produced,  it  was  a  strange  experience 
to  be  using  the  Papuans,  of  whose  language  we  knew 
only  the  rudiments,  as  interpreters  to  an  even  less  known 
people. 

In  consequence  of  our  entire  lack  of  knowledge  of 
their  language  we  were  not  able  to  form  a  very  reason- 
able estimate  of  their  intelligence.  When  they  were  seen  ^l 
in  company  with  the  Papuans,  the  latter,  who  usually 
looked  dull  and  expressionless,  appeared  by  contrast  to 
be  full  of  life  and  animation.  The  Tapiro,  as  a  rule, 
looks  blank  and  rather  sad,  and  when  a  smile  does  appear 
upon  his  face,  it  dawns  slowly  and  reluctantly. 

A  rough  test  of  an  uncivilised  man's  intelligence  is 
the  extent  to  which  he  is  able  to  count,  but  in  the  case 
of  the  Tapiro  there  is  an  unfortunate  difference  of  evidence 
in  this  respect.  Capt.  Rawling  {Geograph.  Journal,  ^/ 
Vol.  xxxviii.,  page  246)  afhrms  that  they  are  able  to 
count  up  to  ten.  If  this  is  so,  it  is  a  very  interesting 
and  remarkable  fact.  On  several  occasions  I  tried  to 
make  these  people  count,  with  a  view  to  learning  their 
numeral  words,  and  I  found  that  like  the  Papuans  they 
only  had  words  for  one  and  two,  and  that  those  two  words 
were  the  same  as  the  Papuan  words ;  but  it  appeared 
that,  unlike  the  Papuans,  they  had  not  the  custom  of 
^  using  their  fingers  and  toes  for  the  higher  numbers. 


2o8  PYGMIES  AND   PAPUANS 

On  the  credit  side  of  their  intelligence  must  be  placed 
their  admirably  constructed  houses,  their  decorated 
arrows  and  ingeniously  woven  bags,  and  their  cultivation. 

As  well  as  the  village  and  clearing  of  Wambiri  Merbiri 
we  saw  other  small  patches  of  cleared  ground  on  the 
spurs  of  Mount  Tapiro,  and  on  the  slopes  of  Mount 
Tuaba  we  saw  from  a  distance  another  large  clearing 
which  we  were  never  able  to  reach.  Farther  to  the  East 
we  saw  no  sign  of  them  and  we  were  informed  by  the 
Papuans  that  there  were  no  more  in  that  direction.  That 
is  probably  true,  for  the  mountains  are  so  excessively 
steep  to  the  East  of  Mount  Tuaba  that  there  appears  to 
be  no  country  suitable  for  them.  It  seems  likely  that 
we  were  fortunate  enough  to  meet  these  people  at  the 
Eastern  limit  of  their  range  and  that  more  of  them  would 
be  found  living  in  the  hills  N.W.  from  the  Kapare  River 
towards  the  Charles  Louis  Mountains,  where  the  slopes 
are  less  steep  than  in  the  Nassau  Range.  The  thick- 
coated  dog,  which  was  brought  down  to  Parimau  by  the 
Tapiro  (see  p.  126),  might  suggest  that  they  have  dealings 
with  other  natives  living  high  up  in  the  mountains,  but 
so  far  we  have  no  definite  knowledge  of  the  existence  of 
such  a  people. 

This  account  of  our  observations,  which  were  neces- 
sarily very  superficial,  will  suffice  to  show  that  there  is  a 
most  promising  field  for  some  future  investigator,  who 
has  opportunity  and  time  to  spend  among  these  most 
interesting  people. 


TlIK    PYCMIES. 


CHAPTER  XVI 

Communication  with  Amhoina  and  Meraitkc — Sail  in  the  "  Valk  " 
to  the  Utakwa  River — Removal  of  the  Dutch  Expedition — View  of 
Mount  Carstensz — Dugongs — Crowded  Ship — Dayaks  and  Live 
Stock — Sea-Snakes — Excitable  Convicts — The  Island  River — Its 
Great  Size — Another  Dutch  Expedition — Their  Achievements — 
Houses  in  the  Trees — Large  Village — Barn-like  Houses — Naked 
People — Shooting  Lime — Their  Skill  in  Paddling — Through  the 
Marianne  Straits — An  Extract  from  Carstensz — Merauke — Trade 
in  Copra — Botanic  Station — The  Mission — The  Ke  Island  Boat- 
builders — The  Natives  of  Merauke  described — Arrival  of  our  Third 
Batch  of  Coolies — The  Feast  of  St.  Nicholas — Return  to  Mimika. 

It  has  been  mentioned  in  the  preceding  chapters  that 
after  the  expedition  landed  in  New  Guinea,  a  more  or 
less  regular  communication  was  kept  up  between  the 
Mimika  and  Amboina.  The  South-west  coast  of  New  //^ 
Guinea  as  far  East  as  the  Utanata  River  is  in  the 
administrative  district  of  Amboina,  and  beyond  that,  as 
far  as  the  boundary  of  British  New  Guinea,  the  country 
is  nominally  under  the  control  of  the  station  of  Merauke. 
Thus  the  Mimika  is  actually  within  the  Merauke  district, 
but  it  was  for  many  reasons  found  more  convenient  for 
the  Government  to  communicate  with  the  expedition 
directly  from  Amboina  rather  than  by  way  of  Merauke  ; 
accordingly  the  soldiers  forming  our  escort  were  attached 
as  an  outpost  to  the  garrison  of  Amboina  and  communi- 
cations were  estabhshed  with  that  place. 

For  several  months  a  steamer  came  from  Amboina 

P 


210  PYGMIES  AND  PAPUANS 

to  the  Mimika,  bringing  men  and  stores  and  letters 
and  taking  away  invalids ;  usually  it  came  every  six  or 
eight  weeks,  and  the  longest  interval  that  occurred  was 
twelve  weeks,  during  which  for  one  reason  or  another 
it  was  found  impossible  to  send  a  ship  to  the  Mimika. 
In  October  an  alteration  was  made,  and  it  was  decided 
that  the  Merauke  steamer,  which  was  in  regular  com- 
munication with  the  Dutch  expeditions  on  the  Utakwa 
and  Island  rivers,  should  visit  the  Mimika  also.  It  was 
in  consequence  of  this  new  arrangement  on  the  part  of 
the  Government  that  I  was  enabled  to  make  the  journey 
described  below,  and  although  these  places  do  net  fall 
strictly  within  the  sphere  of  our  expedition,  yet  they  are 
so  Httle  known  that  I  shall  make  no  apology  for  giving 
a  short  description  of  them  here. 

Towards  the  end  of  November,  the  Government 
steamer  Valk  called  at  the  Mmiika  on  its  way  to  the 
Utakwa  and  Island  rivers  to  take  away  our  sick  men, 
who  had  accumulated  in  some  numbers  during  the  last 
two  months.  Our  work  was  practicahy  at  a  standstill, 
and  nothing  more  could  be  done  until  our  next  batch  of 
coolies  arrived,  so  it  was  agreed  that  I  should  go  down 
to  Merauke  in  company  with  Shortridge,  who  was  going 
home  an  invalid,  and  bring  back  our  new  coolies  who 
were  due  to  arrive  there  by  the  next  boat  early  in 
December. 

A  few  hours'  steaming  from  the  Mimika  brought  us 
to  the  mouth  of  the  Utakwa,  where  we  lay  outside  the 
bar  all  night  waiting  for  daylight  to  find  our  way  into 
the  channel.  When  we  had  entered  the  river  it  was 
evident  that  the  Utakwa  was  something  very  different 


THE   UTAKWA   RIVER  211 

from  the  Mimika,  which  is  a  mere  ditch  in  comparison 
with  it ;  it  is  indeed  to  the  Mimika  as  the  Severn  is  to 
the  Wye.  It  was  tantahsing  to  remember  that  this  was 
the  river  by  which  we  had  originally  intended  to  enter 
the  country,  and  one  could  not  help  regretfully  wonder- 
ing what  would  have  been  the  result  if  we  had  f  oho  wed 
out  that  plan ;  but  it  was  at  the  best  an  unprofitable 
speculation,  and  one  had  to  rest  content  (or  as  content 
as  possible)  with  the  course  we  had  taken.  In  any  case 
it  was  certain  that  even  if  we  had  taken  the  Utakwa  as 
our  point  of  entering  into  the  country,  we  could  not 
possibly  have  reached  any  considerable  height  in  the 
Snow  Mountains  with  the  means,  i.e.  the  men,  at  our 
disposal. 

Near  its  mouth  and  for  some  miles  inland  the 
Utakwa  is  about  half  a  mile  wide  and  bounded  by  low 
banks  of  Mangrove  and  Nipa-palm.  The  Valk  was  a 
ship  of  about  five  hundred  tons  drawing  twelve  feet  of 
water.  We  steamed  up  the  river  for  about  seventeen 
miles  and  there  anchored,  not  from  lack  of  water,  but 
on  account  of  the  risk  of  turning  the  ship  round  against 
a  strong  current  in  the  somewhat  narrowing  channel. 
From  the  anchorage  a  steam  launch  and  boats  were  sent 
on  to  the  base  camp  of  the  Government  expedition, 
which  had  been  estabUshed  rather  more  than  thirty 
miles  further  up  the  river. 

We  waited  for  three  days  while  that  expedition  was 
being  brought  away,  and  after  the  first  day  the  Valk 
went  down  to  the  mouth  of  the  river  on  account  of  the 
mosquitoes  at  the  anchorage ;  they  were  a  small  black 
species,  and  they  came  out  of  the  swamps  by  day  as  well 


212  PYGMIES  AND  PAPUANS 

as  by  night  in  swarms,  and  attacked  everybody  on  board 
so  furiously  that  hfe  became  quite  intolerable.  Before 
we  left  the  anchorage  up  the  river  we  saw  a  magnificent 
view  of  the  snows  of  Mount  Carstensz  towering  up  over 
the  morning  mists.  From  there  the  Snow  Mountains, 
making  as  it  were  a  steep  wall  across  the  view  to  the 
North,  appear  far  more  imposing  than  they  do  in  the 
rather  sidelong  view  from  the  Mimika  ;  and  the  different 
aspect  of  the  precipices  as  seen  from  the  Utakwa  was 
most  instructive. 

Whilst  we  were  waiting  at  the  mouth  of  the  river 
we  were  visited  by  several  parties  of  natives  in  canoes, 
who  came,  they  informed  us,  from  a  large  village  on  the 
Kupera  Pukwa,  the  next  river  to  the  west  of  the 
Utakwa.  They  appeared  to  use  the  same,  or  almost 
the  same,  language  as  the  people  of  Mimika,  and  they 
were  very  anxious  that  we  should  go  and  visit  their 
village,  but  unfortunately  we  had  no  means  of  doing  so. 

An  interesting  sight  at  the  mouth  of  the  Utakwa 
//  were  the  Dugongs  [Halicore  auslralis),  which  were  seen 
feeding  on  the  weeds  in  the  shallow  water  and  occasion- 
ally rose  up  and  stared  at  us  in  a  curiously  human 
manner.  They  are  about  "  eight  feet  long  and  are 
perfectly  inoffensive  creatures,  but  they  have  been 
"fished"  for  with  nets  and  almost  exterminated  in 
many  places  on  account  of  their  valuable  oil. 

The  Dutch  expedition  came  down  to  us  in  detach- 
ments during  the  three  days  that  w^e  waited  at  the 
mouth  of  the  river.  There  were  Captain  Van  der  Bie,  in 
command  ;  Mr.  J.  M.  Dumas,  surveyor  and  naturalist ; 
three  white  sergeants,  about   fifty  native  soldiers  and 


•YPES    OF    TAPIRO    PYGMIES. 


DUTCH   EXPEDITION  213 

convicts,  and  twenty  Dayaks  of  Dutch  Borneo,  who 
came  down  the  river  in  the  long  canoes  they  had  built 
themselves.  There  was  also  an  Australian  collector, 
Mr.  Meek  and  two  assistants,  who  had  been  attached  to  ^ 
the  Dutch  expedition  to  make  collections  of  birds  and 
butterflies  for  a  private  museum  in  England.  With  Mr. 
Meek  were  ten  natives  of  Port  Moresby  in  British  New 
Guinea,  little  brown,  fuzzy-headed  fellows  full  of  life  and 
merriment ;  they  were  in  every  way  so  different  from  the 
sombre  and  unemotional  Papuans  that  it  was  difficult  to 
realise  that  they  were  both  natives  of  the  same  island. 

The  Utakwa  expedition  had  been  in  the  country  for 
seven  months  and  had  traversed  a  considerable  extent  of 
country,  but  those  months  coincided  with  the  period  of 
the  worst  weather — one  cannot  talk  of  wet  and  dry 
seasons  in  that  region— and  like  us  they  had  suffered 
from  the  shortcomings  of  their  coolies  ;  the  Dayaks  had 
reached  them  too  late  to  be  of  much  service  to  the  expe- 
dition. From  their  base  camp  at  the  head  of  steam- 
launch  navigation  they  had  gone  two  days  further  up 
the  river  in  canoes,  and  then  had  gone  a  distance  of 
seven  marches  towards  Mount  Carstensz.  The  furthest 
point  they  reached  was  at  an  altitude  of  about  3000  feet, 
and  was  less  than  twenty  miles  distant  from  the  snow, 
but  the  views  of  the  country  that  they  saw  were  not  suf- 
ficient to  show  whether  that  was  the  best  route  to  the 
highest  mountains.  One  of  the  principal  objects  of  the  // 
Government  in  despatching  that  expedition  to  the  Uta- 
kwa was  to  discover  a  convenient  way  of  crossing  New 
Guinea,  and  when  it  was  found  that  the  Utakwa  led 
apparently  to  the  highest  mountain  in  the  island,  it  was 


214  PYGMIES  AND   PAPUANS 

decided  to  withdraw  the  expedition,  and  to  concentrate 
all  the  exploring  energies  on  the  Island  River,  which 
seemed  to  offer  a  better  prospect  of  accompHshing  that 
purpose. 

When  all  these  people  had  been  taken  on  board  the 
Valk,  the  decks  of  the  little  ship  were  crowded  to  over- 
flowing with  gear  and  men  and  wild  animals.  They  had 
brought  some  young  wild  pigs,  a  number  of  crowned  and 
other  kinds  of  pigeons,  and  several  young  cassowaries. 
Mr.  Dumas  brought  on  board  three  eggs,  from  which 
were  hatched  pretty  little  cassowary  chicks  during  the 
next  few  days.  We  were  particularly  struck  by  the 
appearance  of  the  Dayaks,  any  one  of  whom  looked  more 
than  a  match  for  three  of  our  Malay  coolies.  Apart  from 
their  apparent  strength,  they  differed  noticeably  from 
the  Malays,  who  like  to  spend  their  days  in  sleeping 
between  meals,  in  their  unceasing  industry;  they  had 
brought  on  board  quantities  of  bamboo,  from  which 
they  at  once  started  making  bird  cages,  and  pieces  of 
hard  wood,  out  of  which  they  carved  handles  for  their 
knives  and  other  ornamental  objects. 

The  ship  was  so  heavily  laden  that  it  was  impossible 
to  take  on  board  all  the  boats  that  had  been  used  by 
the  Utakwa  expedition,  and  three  or  four  were  towed 
in  a  long  string  astern.  Fortunately  the  sea  was  ex- 
ceptionally smooth,  but  even  so  one  of  these,  an  almost 
new  "  long-boat,"  broke  adrift,  and  we  lost  a  day  in 
searching  for  it  unsuccessfully. 

Whilst  we  were  cruising  about  looking  for  the  lost 
boat,  one  of  our  passengers,  a  fever-stricken  soldier  from 
the  Mimika,  caused  some  excitement  by  stabbing  with 


CONVICT  LUNATIC  215 

his  knife  another  man  and  then  jumping  hastily  into 
the  sea.  The  sudden  plunge  cooled  his  fever  and  the 
appearance  of  a  sea-snake  swimn^ing  not  far  from  him 
made  him  as  anxious  to  return  to  the  ship  as  he  had 
been  to  leave  it. 

During  the  voyage  down  the  coast  we  saw  a  number  ^ 
of  sea-snakes,  sometimes  as  far  as  thirty  or  forty 
miles  from  land,  but  there  was  no  opportunity  of 
catching  one ;  they  appeared  to  be  yellowish  with  dark 
markings  and  were  about  three  or  four  feet  in  length. 
I  was  told  that  they  sometimes  travel  in  large  numbers 
together  and  will  climb  up  the  sides  of  ships  at  anchor, 
but  I  cannot  vouch  for  the  correctness  of  this  statement. 

Another  episode,  which  enlivened  the  vo3''age  down 
to  Merauke,  was  caused  by  the  strange  behaviour  of 
one  of  the  convicts,  who  was  being  taken  away  from  the 
Mimika.  This  man  had  suffered  from  the  common 
form  of  delusion  that  everybody  was  against  him,  and 
after  he  had  run  away  from  the  camp  at  Wakatimi 
and  had  spent  thirty-six  hours  in  the  jungle  without 
food  I  certified  that  he  was  of  unsound  mind  and 
recommended  that  he  should  be  sent  back  to  Java. 
He  was  found  prowling  about  the  ship  with  an  exceed- 
ingly sharp  knife,  with  which  (so  he  said)  he  intended 
to  murder  me,  so  he  was  promptly  secured  in  chains. 
We  made  friends  in  a  day  or  two  and  he  was  set  at 
liberty  again  before  we  reached  Merauke,  but  I  confess 
I  was  not  sorry  when  we  were  no  longer  together  in  the 
same  ship. 

On  the  second  day  after  leaving  the  Utakwa  we 
entered  the  Island  River  by  one  of  its  many  mouths, 


2i6  PYGMIES  AND  PAPUANS 

and  after  we  had  gone  up  it  a  few  miles  we  realised 
that  in  the  matter  of  size  it  is  to  the  Utakwa  as  that 
river  is  to  the  Mimika.  The  banks  are  low  and  swampy 
and  mostly  covered  with  mangroves  for  several  miles 
from  the  coast.  Further  on  the  banks  are  a  few  feet 
above  the  level  of  high  water  and  we  saw  many  trees 
that  looked  like  good  timber  trees  and  others  of  con- 
siderable beauty,  notably  a  wide-spreading  acacia-like 
tree  [Alhizia  moluccana),  and  a  very  graceful  palm 
{Oncosperma  filamentosum)  like  a  Betel-nut  palm  grow- 
ing in  clumps  by  the  waterside.  We  noticed  also  a 
number  of  Bread-fruit  trees  {Artocarpus  sp.)  bigger 
than  any  I  have  seen  elsewhere,  but  none  of  them 
appeared  to  bear  fruit. 

We  steamed  up  the  river  for  one  hundred  and  twelve 
nautical  miles  to  the  Swallow,  the  depot  ship  and  base 
camp  of  the  Dutch  exploring  expedition.  The  river  at 
that  point  is  about  three  hundred  yards  wide,  but  the 
current  is  swift  and  there  are  many  shallow  sand  banks, 
which  make  further  navigation  impossible  for  a  ship  as 
large  as  the  Valk. 

The  Dutch  expedition  had  been  established  for  several 
months  in  the  country  and  had  made  very  considerable 
progress  towards  the  North.  From  the  Swallow  they 
had  proceeded  up  the  river  two  days'  journey  by  steam 
launch  and  six  days  beyond  that  by  canoes  as  far  as  the 
river  was  navigable,  a  distance  of  more  than  one  hundred 
miles.  Thence  they  had  gone  North,  and  in  nine  marches 
they  had  reached  a  height  of  ten  thousand  feet  at  a  point 
which  appeared  to  be  on  the  watershed  of  the  main 
mountain  range  of  the  island.      One  of  the  principal 


A    PAPUAN    WITH    TWO    TAPIRO    PYGMIES. 


iy 


THE   ISLAND   RIVER  217 

objects  of  the  expedition  was  to  cross  New  Guinea  from 
South  to  North,  and  it  was  hoped  that  from  the  furthest 
point  they  had  reached  they  would  soon  arrive  at  one  of 
the  upper  tributaries  of  the  Kaiserin  Augusta,  the  large 
river  which  enters  the  sea  in  German  territory.  They 
were  at  that  time  busily  occupied  in  transporting  supplies 
up  to  their  furthest  camp  with  a  view  to  continuing  the 
journey,  but  shortly  afterwards  the  expedition  was 
crippled  by  sickness  and  the  project  was  abandoned. 
We  spent  two  days  alongside  of  the  Swallow  transferring 
to  her  the  stores  and  many  of  the  men  that  we  had 
brought  from  the  Utakwa  and  taking  away  the  sick  and 
time-expired  members  of  the  Island  River  expedition, 
amongst  them  being  Lieut.  Van  der  Wenn  of  the  Nether- 
lands Navy,  who  was  attached  to  the  expedition  as 
surveyor. 

On  our  way  down  the  Island  River  we  saw  many 
things  which  we  had  missed  on  the  way  up,  because  we 
had  entered  the  river  and  steamed  up  through  several 
hours  of  darkness.  First  we  came  to  isolated  houses  by  _ 
the  river  bank  of  the  same  type  as  the  Mimika  houses,  ^^ 
but  larger  and  better  built ;  near  them  we  saw  a  few 
natives,  who  appeared  to  be  very  shy  and  retreated  hastil}' 
into  the  jungle  when  the  steamer  approached. 

Lower  down,  when  we  were  within  about  thirty  miles 
of  the  sea,  we  came  to  a  large  village  of  fifty  or  sixty 
houses,  some  of  which  were  raised  on  piles  near  the  edge 
of  the  river  and  the  others  were  built  in  the  trees,  where 
they  presented  a  most  astonishing  appearance.  They 
are  square  and  apparently  well-made  houses  with  ridge- 
pole roof  and  walls  of  "  atap,"  the  entrance  is  by  a  hole 


2i8  PYGMIES  AND  PAPUANS 

in  the  floor  which  is  reached  by  a  vertical  ladder  of 
bamboo  from  the  ground.  One  house  was  at  a  height  of 
certainly  not  less  than  sixty  feet  above  the  ground  in  a 
very  slender  tree,  and  the  position  of  the  inhabitants, 
when  the  wind  blew,  must  have  been  far  from  enviable. 
Unfortunately  the  sun  was  low  and  directly  behind  the 
village  so  that  I  was  unable  to  obtain  photographs  of  the 
tree-dwellings.  The  people  there  showed  no  fear  of  us, 
but  stood  on  the  bank  and  shouted  and  waved  their 
spears. 

A  few  miles  further  down  the  river  we  came  to 
another  large  village  of  yet  a  different  character.  The 
houses  there  were  all  built  on  piles,  but  while  a  few  of 
them  were  of  the  usual  small  size,  the  majority  were 
quite  unlike  anything  else  we  had  seen  in  that  part  of 
New  Guinea.  They  were  huge  barn-like  structures  raised 
on  piles  ten  or  more  feet  above  the  ground,  and  the 
length  of  some  of  them  must  have  been  from  one  hundred 
and  fifty  to  two  hundred  feet.  It  was  quite  evident  that 
these  were  communal  dwellings,  indicating  a  social 
system  entirely  different  from  that  of  the  surrounding 
districts,  and  it  was  very  tantalising  to  pass  them  within  a 
few  yards  and  not  to  be  able  to  visit  them.  The  village 
extended  for  about  a  mile  along  the  East  bank  and  the 
natives  that  we  saw  must  have  numbered  at  least  a 
thousand.  The  men  were  all  entirely  naked  and  the 
women  were  only  dressed  in  the  scantiest  strip  of  bark- 
cloth.  In  other  respects  they  appeared,  as  far  as  one 
could  tell  from  such  a  rapid  survey  of  them,  to  be  very 
similar  to  the  Mimika  Papuans  in  their  features  and 
their  short  hair  and  their  absence  of  adornments. 


I 


INTERESTING  PEOPLE  219 

Crowds  of  people  lined  the  river  bank  and  some  of 
them,  holding  short  bamboos  in  their  hands,  jerked  them 
in  our  direction  and  from  the  end  came  out  a  white  cloud 
of  powdered  lime,  which  looked  like  smoke.  This  custom 
was  noticed  by  RawUng  when  he  first  visited  the  village 
of  Nim^,  and  it  was  recorded  by  some  of  the  early 
voyagers,*  but  the  meaning  of  it  has  not  yet  been 
explained.  The  suggestion  that  it  is  a  means  of  imitating 
the  appearance  of  fire-arms  is  ingenious,  but  it  can  hardly 
be  seriously  considered. 

While  most  of  the  people  stood  on  the  bank  to  see  us 
pass,  a  number  of  men  jumped  into  their  canoes  and  came 
racing  after  us.  The  current  of  the  river  was  about  two, 
and  the  speed  of  the  Valk  was  seven  knots,  so  they  had 
to  move  quickly,  but  they  easily  overtook  us  and  followed 
us  for  some  distance  down  the  river.  Their  canoes  are 
simple  "dug-outs,"  but  they  differ  from  those  of  the 
Mimika  in  coming  to  a  fine  point  at  both  ends.  The  bow 
is  roughly  notched  on  the  upper  side,  which  gives  it 
somewhat  the  appearance  of  a  bird's  beak.  They  seem 
also  to  be  considerably  hghter  than  the  Mimika  craft,  and 
so  narrow  that  a  man  could  hardly  sit  down  in  them. 
The  usual  number  of  a  crew  is  nine  or  ten  men,  who  all 
stand  up  and  all  paddle  on  the  same  side  of  the  canoe. 
The  regular  swing  of  their  bodies  and  the  perfect  pre- 
cision of  the  paddling  was  a  sight  prettier  than  any 
"  eight  "  I  have  ever  seen.  They  called  to  us  and  waved 
bundles  of  arrows,  evidently  anxious  to  trade  with  us, 
but  the  captain  of  the  Valk  was  unable  to  stop,  so  we 

*  "  Capt.  Cook,  H.M.S.  Endeavour,  1770."     "  Kolff's  Voyages  in 
Dutch  Brig  of  War  Donrga,  1825-6." 


220  PYGMIES  AND  PAPUANS 

threw  overboard  for  them  empty  tins  and  bottles,  and  it 
was  marvellous  to  see  how  they  raced  up  to  these  things, 
and  with  a  sudden  backward  stroke  of  their  paddles 
brought  the  canoes  to  a  standstill,  while  they  recovered 
the  prize,  and  then  raced  on  again. 

From  the  mouth  of  the  Island  River,  as  we  went  out 
to  sea,  we  saw  through  a  break  in  the  clouds  to  the  far 
North  the  snow  on  Mount  Wilhelmina,  which  was 
reached  by  Mr.  H.  A.  Lorentz  in  November,  1909. 
Steaming  in  a  south-easterly  direction  we  kept  some 
way  out  from  the  land,  which  is  so  low  as  to  be  invisible 
at  a  distance  of  a  few  miles.  When  we  were  opposite 
the  Digoel,  the  greatest  (excepting  the  Fly)  of  all  the 
South  New  Guinea  rivers,  we  found  the  sea  strewn  with 
logs  and  trees,  in  some  places  so  many  together  as  to 
form  floating  islands,  on  which  crowds  of  gulls  and  terns 
were  seen  to  settle  at  nightfall. 

The  tide  favouring  us,  we  chose  the  Marianne  Strait 
between  the  mainland  and  Prince  Frederick  Henry 
Island.  Sometimes,  when  the  south-east  monsoon  has 
been  blowing  regularly  for  a  few  days,  it  is  quite  im- 
possible for  a  ship  of  only  moderate  power  to  steam 
through  it  against  the  current.  The  Strait  is  a  winding 
/'  channel  about  ninety  miles  long  and  has  an  average 
width  of  about  two  miles,  and  it  is  not  surprising  that 
early  voyagers,  even  as  late  as  Kolff,  in  the  Dutch 
brig-of-war,  Dourga,  in  1826,  mistook  it  for  a  river. 
The  banks  are  low  and  forest-covered,  and  we  only 
saw  two  small  clusters  of  houses.  From  one  of  these 
some  men  put  off  in  a  canoe  to  intercept  us  and 
followed  us  for  some    distance,  calling  "  Kaya-Kaya" 


JAN  CARSTENSZ  221 

(friend).*  They  were  tall  and  powerful-looking  men, 
entirely  naked  except  for  a  small  shell  attached  to  a 
string  about  the  middle,  and  their  great  mats  of  hair 
extending  down  to  the  shoulders  and  beyond  showed 
most  clearly  that  we  had  come  to  yet  another  tribe 
quite  distinct  from  the  people  of  the  Island  River. 

Jan  Carstensz,  who  visited  this  coast  in  1623,  gives 
a  good  description  of  the  land  and  the  people  if  "It 
"is  impossible  to  land  here  with  boats  or  pinnaces 
"  owing  to  the  clayey  and  muddy  bottom  into  which 
"  a  man  will  sink  up  to  the  waist,  the  depth  of  the 
"  water  being  no  more  than  three  or  four  fathoms  at 
"  three  or  four  miles  distant  from  the  land.  The  land 
"  is  low-lying  and  half  submerged,  being  quite  under 
"water  at  high  tide;  it  is  covered  with  wild  trees, 
"  those  on  the  beach  resembling  the  fir-trees  of  [our 
"  country,  and  seemingly  bear  no  fruit.  The  natives 
"  are  coal  black  like  the  Kafhrs  and  they  go  about 
"stark  naked.  They  have  two  holes  in  the  midst  of 
"  the  nose,  with  fangs  of  hogs  or  sword-fishes  through 
"  them,  protruding  at  least  three  fingers'  breadth  on 
"  either  side,  so  that  in  appearance  they  are  more  like 
"  monsters  than  human  beings,  they  seem  to  be  evil- 
"  natured  and  malignant.  The  lands  which  we  have 
"  up  to  now  skirted  and  touched  at  not  only  are  barren 
"  and  inhabited  by  savages,  but  also  the  sea  in  these 
"  parts  yields  no  other  fish  than  sharks,  sword-fishes, 

*  This  is  the  usual  friendly  greeting  of  the  people  in  the  Merauke 
district.  The  word  is  now  used  by  the  Dutch  as  a  slang  name  for  the 
natives  of  any  part  of  New  Guinea. 

t  Voyage  of  the  ships  Pera  and  Arnhem,  under  command  of  Jan 
Carstenszoon  or  Carstensz,  1623. 


^ 


223  PYGMIES  AND   PAPUANS 

"  and  the  like  unnatural  monsters,  while  the  birds  too 
"  are  as  wild  and  shy  as  the  men."  Further  to  the  East 
he  found  the  people  "  cunning  and  suspicious,  and  no 
"  stratagem  on  our  part  availed  to  draw  them  near 
"  enough  to  us  to  enable  us  to  catch  one  or  two  with 
"  nooses  which  we  had  prepared  for  the  purpose." 
Suspicion  of  the  unknown  is  in  the  nature  of  savage 
people,  and  when  we  read  that  "  in  order  to  frighten 
"  them  the  corporal  fired  a  musket,  which  hit  them 
"  both,  so  that  they  died  on  the  spot,"  we  no  longer 
wonder  that  they  appeared  to  Jan  Carstensz  to  be 
"  evil-natured  and  malignant."  But  times  have  changed 
and  the  Dutch  navigator  of  to-day  is  not  less  humane 
than  any  other. 

After  coming  out  of  the  Marianne  Straits  we  noticed 
a  change  in  the  appearance  of  the  land ;  the  smoke  of 
villages  appeared  at  frequent  intervals  and  the  shore  was 
seen  to  be  fringed  by  a  continuous  belt  of  coco-palms 
in  place  of  the  mangrove  to  which  we  had  become 
accustomed.  In  a  few  hours  from  the  Marianne  Straits 
we  came  to  the  mouth  of  the  Merau  River  and  after 
steaming  up  it  for  about  four  miles  we  dropped  anchor 
opposite  the  Dutch  station  of  Merauke,  where  we  left 
the  ship  and  went  ashore. 

The  Dutch  people  have  an  inborn  preference  for  low- 
lying  land  on  which  to  place  their  stations,  but  not  the 
most  enthusiastic  fenman  would  have  voluntarily  chosen 
Merauke  as  a  place  for  a  settlement.  The  reason  of  its 
existence  is  a  political  one.  Formerly  the  natives  of  the 
district,  the  Tugeri,  a  very  fierce  and  warlike  people, 
used  to  have  the  habit  of  making  raids  to  the  Eastward 


^i^m\S\Virt 


.  BBS 


y. 

o 

"  a 
<  o 

o  ,,, 


MERAUKE  223 

into  British  territoiy,  whence  they  brought  slaves  and 
the  heads  of  their  fallen  enemies.  This  became  such  a 
nuisance  that  the  Australian  Government  addressed  pro- 
tests to  the  Dutch  about  the  lawless  behaviour  of  their 
subjects,  and  in  1902  the  Dutch  made  the  station  of  '^ 
Merauke,  and  established  there  a  small  garrison  of  about 
one  hundred  men.  The  place  was  chosen  partly  because 
it  was  in  the  centre  of  the  district  of  the  Tugcri,  and 
partly  because  on  that  shallow  coast  the  Merau  River 
alone  offered  a  safe  harbour  for  ships.  It  is  a  dreary 
enough  place  on  the  muddy  bank  of  the  river  and  sur- 
rounded on  the  other  sides  by  swamps,  but  the  Dutch 
have  made  the  best  of  a  bad  job,  and  by  laborious  ditch- 
ing and  dyking  they  have  made  the  place  fairly  secure 
from  floods  ;  in  spite  of  all  their  draining,  however,  there 
are  more  mosquitoes  there  than  in  any  other  inhabited 
place  I  have  ever  visited. 

Like  other  Dutch  settlements  Merauke  is  laid  out  on  y/ 
a  regular  and  spacious  plan,  plent}^  of  room  being  left 
between  the  houses  of  the  officials  and  the  quarter 
occupied  by  the  shops  of  the  Chinese,  of  which  there  are 
about  a  dozen.  There  are  (or  were  in  1910)  sixteen 
Europeans  *  in  the  place,  all  of  them  in  the  employment 
of  the  Government  except  two,  the  representatives  of  an 
European  trading  firm.  The  principal  trade  of  the  place 
is  in  copra  obtained  from  the  hundreds  of  thousands 
of  coco-palms,  which  line  the  neighbouring  sea-shore. 
These  palms  are  the  property  of  the  natives,  who  are  too 
lazy  to  take  advantage  of  the  wealth  that  lies  (or  rather 

*  Here,  as  elsewhere  in  the  Dutch  colonies,  half-castes  in  official 
positions  are  reckoned  as  Europeans. 


^ 


224  PYGMIES  AND  PAPUANS 

hangs)  at  their  doors,  and  they  do  not  encourage  other 
people  to  come  and  make  use  of  it. 

There  is  a  small  force  of  native  police  under  a  Dutch 
officer,  and  a  few  convicts  are  emploj^ed  in  keeping  the 
station  in  order.  It  may  not  be  out  of  place  to  remark 
here  that  the  nearest  Dutch  settlement  is  at  Fak-fak  on 
the  S.W.  corner  of  the  MacCluer  Gulf,  seven  hundred 
miles  in  a  straight  line  from  Merauke.  Besides  these  two 
places  the  only  other  Dutch  garrison  is  at  Manokwari 
(Dorei  Bay)  on  the  north  coast,  where  there  has  been  a 
mission  station  for  more  than  fifty  years.  Apart  from 
civilian  and  military  officials,  missionaries  and  two  or 
three  agents  of  a  commercial  firm  there  are  no  settlers  in 
the  huge  territory  of  Dutch  New  Guinea. 

A  former  Resident  of  Merauke,  who  had  somewhat 
inflated  ideas  of  the  future  of  the  country,  estabhshed 
an  experimental  botanic  garden  on  the  only  patch  of 
dry  ground  near  Merauke.  Attached  to  the  garden  is  a 
large  building  containing  rooms  for  three  Europeans, 
laboratories,  a  dark  room  and  so  on,  which  (it  was 
hoped)  would  attract  scientific  agriculturists  and  bota- 
nists from  other  countries  to  come  and  study  the  local 
flora.  But  no  sane  person  wishes  to  study  the  flora  of 
New  Guinea  in  the  middle  of  a  swamp,  and  already  the 
scanty  soil  was  showing  signs  of  exhaustion  at  the  roots 
of  the  experimental  bananas,  and  the  practically-minded 
Resident  was  considering  the  removal  of  the  house  to 
Dobo  or  elsewhere  as  a  dwelling  for  himself,  when  the 
contemplated  abandonment  of  Merauke  as  a  ''Residency" 
should  take  place. 

Another  interesting  building  at  Merauke  is  the  house 


BOAT  BUILDERS  225 

of  the  Mission  of  the  Sacred  Heart,  an  offshoot  from  the  <^ 
mission  at  Toeal.  It  must,  I  am  afraid,  be  admitted 
that  Merauke  is  not  a  favourable  field  for  missionary 
enterprise,  and  the  most  notable  achievements  of  the 
good  fathers  there  are  the  admirable  house  they  have 
built,  and  the  herd  of  cattle  which  they  contrive  to  keep. 
They  teach  a  very  small  class  of  the  native  children,  but 
nearly  all  of  them  relapse  again  very  soon  into  savagery, 
and  the  adults,  who  have  remained  faithful  to  the  mis- 
sion, are  very  few,  and  they  are  not  the  best  specimens 
of  their  race. 

Recently  the  ubiquitous  Chinese  have  discovered  that  ^ 
the  sea  in  the  neighbourhood  of  Merauke  is  a  most 
profitable  fishing  ground,  and  the  results  of  their  labours 
are  spread  abroad  to  dry  in  the  sun,  so  that  there  are 
times  when  the  air  is  almost  too  strong  to  be  breathed. 
The  fishery  has  attracted  some  men  from  the  Ke  Islands, 
who  are  the  best  boat  builders  in  the  Eastern  Archi- 
pelago, and  I  spent  many  hours  watching  them  at  their 
work.  Their  tools  consist  only  of  an  axe,  an  adze  and 
an  auger,  and  no  nails  or  metal  are  used  in  the  construc- 
tion of  a  boat.  The  planks  are  about  three  inches  thick 
and  are  made  each  from  a  single  tree  hewn  to  the 
required  shape.  Holes  are  bored  at  intervals  along  the 
edge  of  the  plank,  and  into  these  are  fixed  pegs  of  wood 
which  fit  into  corresponding  holes  in  the  edge  of  the  suc- 
ceeding plank.  When  the  shell  of  the  boat  is  completed, 
the  ribs,  each  made  from  a  single  piece  of  bent  wood,  are 
fitted  to  the  inside.  The  fitting  of  the  planks  is  so  accu- 
rate that  the  boats  require  little  or  no  caulking,  and  they 
are  ready  to  take  the  water  as  soon  as  they  are  built. 

Q 


226  PYGMIES  AND   PAPUANS 

But  by  far  the  most  interesting  feature  of  Merauke 
are  the  natives  of  the  place,  whose  independent  mien 
and  conservative  customs  fill  the  observer  with  ad- 
miration if  not  with  approval.  It  is  now  nearly  ten 
years  since  the  Dutch  settled  at  Merauke,  but  in  all 
that  time,  apart  from  curbing  somewhat  their  head- 
hunting propensities,  they  have  made  very  Uttle  im- 
pression on  the  natives,  who  still  cling  (if  one  may 
use  somewhat  of  an  Irishism)  to  their  scanty  costume 
of  nothing  at  all,  and  refuse  absolutely  the  beads  and 
cloth  and  other  "trade-goods"  of  the  invading  white 
man.  They  stroll  about  the  place  in  a  most  lordly 
manner,  and  they  like  to  visit  the  houses  of  the 
Europeans,  where  they  spend  hours  disdainfully  watching 
other  people  at  their  work. 

In  appearance  they  differ  from  the  Papuans  of 
the  Mimika  in  their  somewhat  paler  skin  and  in 
their  features,  which  are  markedly  of  the  (so-called) 
"  Semitic  "  type  with  prominent  eyes  and  long,  curving, 
fleshy  nose.  They  are  very  fond  of  personal  adornment 
and  paint  their  faces  with  white,  red,  and  yellow  colours  ; 
a  fashionable  but  very  unsightly  decoration  is  to  paint 
the  eyelids  and  eyelashes  white.  Through  the  septum  of 
the  nose  is  thrust  a  long  piece  of  white  bone  or  shell,  and 
in  the  alae  nasi,  which  are  also  pierced,  are  often  worn 
the  claws  of  a  large  eagle  which  project  forwards,  and 
give  the  man  a  most  ferocious  aspect  (see  illustration 
opposite. 

Some  of  the  more  dandyfied  individuals  are  loaded 
with  necklaces  of  shells  or  teeth  of  dogs,  sharks  and 
crocodiles,  and  bands  or  belts  of  the  same  things  are 


A    NATIVE    OF    MERAUKE. 

{Weayiiig  ihc  claws  of  an   eagle   in   the  nose.) 


NATIVES    OF    MERAUKE. 


NATIVES   OF  MERAUKE  227 

crossed  on  the  chest.  Rings  of  boars'  tusks  and  plaited 
fibres  almost  cover  the  upper  arms,  and  in  the  ears  are 
worn  bunches  of  large  rings  of  tortoiseshell  and  bamboo. 
The  hair  is  long  and  is  plaited  with  a  mixture  of  mud 
and  grass  and  feathers  into  a  solid  bunch,  which  hangs 
down  beyond  the  level  of  the  shoulders.  In  some  of 
these  head-dresses  I  saw  plumes  of  the  Greater,  the  Red 
and  the  King  birds  of  Paradise ;  it  appears  that  when 
once  they  are  made  these  head-dresses  may  be  added  to, 
but  they  can  never  be  undone,  and  they  are  accordingly 
indescribably  dirty.  These  people  are  characterised  by 
a  pungent  and  most  disagreeable  odour,  quite  different 
from  the  sickly  sweet  smell  of  the  sago-eating  Mimika 
people. 

Another  curious  custom  of  the  Merauke  natives  is 
their  habit  of  wearing  round  the  waist  a  belt  of  pig- 
skin, which  cannot  be  removed,  and  is  so  tight  that 
it  constricts  the  man  to  an  (apparently)  most  painful 
degree ;  the  women  of  the  tribe  do  not  indulge  in  this 
practice. 

Two  days  after  our  arrival  the  monthly  mail-steamer 
came  bringing  our  forty-eight  new  coolies  from  Macassar, 
and  on  the  following  day  it  sailed  again,  taking  Short- 
ridge  on  his  way  back  to  England.  For  a  week  longer 
I  received  the  most  kind  hospitality  from  the  Resident, 
Mr.  E.  Kalff,  until  we  returned  to  the  Mimika.  During 
that  week  of  waiting  our  new  coolies,  who  had  heard 
terrible  stories  of  the  Mimika,  declared  that  they  would 
never  go  there,  and  they  attacked  with  knives  the 
guards  who  W(3re  placed  to  keep  them  in  order.  When 
I  told  them  that  if  they  had  no  liking  for  the  Mimika 


228  PYGMIES  AND   PAPUANS 

they  were  perfectly  at  liberty  to  go  and  live  near 
Merauke,  the  stories  they  heard  of  the  habits  of  the 
Tugeri  put  an  immediate  end  to  the  strike,  and  they 
came  contentedly  enough  to  the  Mimika.  They  were 
more  fortunate  than  some  of  their  predecessors,  and  all 
returned  to  their  homes  at  the  end  of  the  expedition. 

The  Dutch  have  a  pleasant  sentiment  with  regard  to 
the  customs  of  their  native  land,  and  at  Merauke,  the 
most  remote  outpost  of  Holland,  the  feast  of  S.  Nicholas 
was  celebrated  with  due  ceremony.  All  the  Europeans 
in  the  place,  as  well  as  the  Javanese  sergeants  and  clerks 
and  their  children,  assembled  to  meet  the  Saint,  a  huge 
Dutchman  disguised  out  of  all  recognition,  and  all  of  us, 
brown  and  white  alike,  received  at  his  hands  a  present  or 
a  mock  flogging  according  to  our  deserts. 

After  spending  ten  very  agreeable  days  at  Merauke 
we  sailed  on  December  i8th  and  going  by  way  of  the 
Island  River,  where  W'e  landed  fresh  men  for  that  ex- 
pedition, we  arrived  again  at  the  Mimika  on  the  22nd 
December. 


CHAPTER  XVII 

DificuUy  of  Cross-country  Travel  —  Expedition  moves  towards  the 
Mountains— Arrival  at  the  Iwaka  River— Changing  Scenery— The 
Impassable  Iwaka— A  Plucky  Gurkha— Building  a  Bridge— We 
start  into  the  Mountains— Fording  Rivers— Flowers— Lack  of  Water 
on  Hillside— Curious  Vegetation— Otir  highest  Point— A  wide 
View— Rare  Birds— Coal— Uninhabitable  Country— Dreary  Jungle 
—Rarely  any  Beauty— Remarkable  Trees— Occasional  Compensa- 
tions. 

When  our  third  and  last  batch  of  forty-eight  coohes 
reached  the  Mimika  towards  the  end  of  December,  it 
was  at  once  evident  from  their  appearance  that  the 
majority  of  them  would  not  last  very  long,  and  as  we 
had  ourselves  been  already  for  a  year  in  the  country, 
it  was  agreed  that  we  should  make  a  final  effort  to  pene- 
trate as  far  as  possible  towards  the  mountains,  and 
that  when  our  means  of  transport  came  to  an  end  we 
should  take  our  departure  from  New  Guinea. 

We  had  long  realised  the  impossibility  of  reaching 
the  Snow  Mountains  from  our  present  base.  If  we 
had  possessed  an  efficient  steam-launch  or  motor  boat, 
the  Mimika  was  still  too  small  a  river  and  too  frequently 
unnavigable  to  be  useful  as  a  route  for  water  transport. 
Another  consideration  even  more  important  than  this 
was  the  fact  that  had  the  Mimika  been  ten  times  the 
size  it  was,  it  would  still  have  taken  us  in  a  direction 
many  miles  to  the  West  of  the  mountains  we  hoped 


230  PYGMIES  AND   PAPUANS 

to  reach.  The  result  of  these  two  circumstances  was 
that  we  travelled  by  water  with  great  labour  to  a 
place  (Parimau),  which  was  still  in  low  and  often 
flooded  country,  and  from  there  we  had  to  travel  across 
country  for  many  miles  before  we  came  to  the  first 
rising  ground. 

It  is  difficult  enough  in  New  Guinea  to  make  a  way 
up  a  river  valley,  but  you  always  have  the  comforting 
reflection  that  the  river  itself  leads  you  back  to  your 
base,  when  stores  are  exhausted  and  it  is  time  to  return. 
But  when  you  attempt  to  make  a  cross-country  journey, 
not  only  is  the  trouble  of  cutting  a  track  much  greater 
than  it  is  in  a  river  bed,  but  there  is  the  difficult  and 
often    somewhat    dangerous    business    of    crossing    the 
rivers  ;    added  to  this  is  the  risk,  which  increases  with 
every  river  you  cross,  of  being  cut  off  for  a  longer  or 
shorter  period  from  your   base  camp  and  supplies  by 
a  sudden  flood  in  those  same  rivers.     For  this  reason, 
when  coolies  were  sent  back  from  an  advanced  camp 
to  the  base,   they  had  to  be  supplied  with  an  extra 
allowance  of  food  in  the  event  of  their  being  stopped  by 
floods  on  the  wa}^ ;   such  a  proceeding  meant  diminishing 
to  some  extent  the  store  of  food  they  had  carried  out 
and  a  consequent  waste  of  labour.     It  is  essential,  there- 
fore, in  trying  to  make  a  long  journey  in  such  a  country, 
to  discover  beforehand  the  river  valley  which  will  take 
you  nearest  to  your  goal  and  thus  avoid  the  risks  of  a 
long  cross-country  journej^ 

No  time  was  lost  in  sending  a  fleet  of  canoes  heavily 
laden  with  stores  up  the  river  from  Wakatimi,  and 
early  in  Januar\^  the  whole  expedition  was  assembled 


CROSS-COUNTRY  JOURNEYS  231 

at  Parimau  with  supplies  sufficient  for  three  months. 
On  the  14th  January  Marshall  and  Grant  with  two 
Dayak  collectors,  forty-six  coolies,  thirty-one  Papuans, 
and  about  forty  soldiers  and  convicts,  by  far  the  largest 
number  of  men  we  had  ever  sent  off  at  one  time,  set  out 
for  the  Wataikwa  river.  A  few  of  them  went  on  with 
the  Europeans  to  the  Iwaka,  where  a  track  was  cut 
for  two  marches  up  the  valley  of  that  river,  while  the 
rest,  after  leaving  their  loads  at  the  Wataikwa  depot, 
returned  to  Parimau  to  fetch  more  loads  of  stores. 
From  the  Wataikwa  the  coolies  carried  on  the  stores 
to  the  upper  camp  on  the  Iwaka  river,  a  three  days' 
march,  and  at  the  beginning  of  February  Cramer  and 
I  went  up  there  with  the  last  party.  About  a  hundred 
and  fifty  loads  of  one  kind  or  another  had  been  carried 
up  from  Parimau  in  these  various  excursions,  but  un- 
happily the  coolies  ate  up  a  good  many  of  the  loads 
on  the  way,  and  still  more  unhappily  many  of  the 
coolies  fell  sick,  so  that  if  we  had  wished  to  send  back 
to  Parimau  for  yet  another  transport  of  stores,  it  would 
probably  have  ended  in  our  having  no  coolies  to  carry 
them  any  further. 

The  nett  result  of  all  this  carrying  was  that  when 
we  arrived  with  the  last  loads  at  the  Iwaka  depot  we 
found  that  we  had  only  twelve  days'  provisions  for 
our  party  of  three  Europeans,  two  Dayaks  and  the 
twenty-two  coolies  who  survived  from  the  forty-eight 
of  a  month  earlier.  Cramer  had  food  for  about  the 
same  number  of  days  for  his  party  of  soldiers  and 
convicts.  Such  a  meagre  supply  of  provisions  as  that 
obviously    made    it    out    of    the    question    for    us    to 


232  PYGMIES  AND  PAPUANS 

penetrate  far  into  the  mountains  ;  but  you  must  in 
New  Guinea,  as  elsewhere,  cut  your  coat  according  to 
your  cloth. 

The  Iwaka  at  the  place  where  we  first  came  to  it 
is  a  tremendous  torrent  flowing  in  rather  a  narrow 
stony  bed.  A  little  way  further  down  it  spreads  out 
into  a  wider  channel  like  that  of  the  Wataikwa,  but  it 
is  much  larger  than  that  river  and  though  we  searched 
down  stream  for  three  or  four  miles,  w^e  found  no  place 
where  it  was  possible  to  cross. 

As  we  went  up  the  river  we  very  soon  found  that 
the  river  banks  became  steeper,  and  it  was  soon  evident 
that  we  were  at  last  among  the  hills.  There  was  a 
peculiar  satisfaction  in  bending  one's  legs  to  go  up 
hill  after  having  been  for  so  many  months  on  almost 
level  ground.  The  track  was  not  at  all  easy,  for  it 
appeared  that  in  many  places  large  slices  of  the  hillside 
had  slipped  down,  bringing  with  them  a  chaos  of  dead 
and  living  trees  over  which  we  had  to  pick  a  precarious 
way.  In  some  places  we  crept  along  the  edge  of  the 
torrent,  and  in  others  we  climbed  high  up  the  hillside 
to  avoid  a  precipice  where  the  river  ran  through  a 
narrow  gorge  ;  but  it  was  all  a  pleasant  change  from  the 
monotonous  jungle  of  the  plains.  There  was  more 
variety  in  the  vegetation  too  as  we  went  on  ;  creepers 
arranged  themselves  prettily  on  the  rocky  river  bank, 
and  Fan-palms,  which  we  had  not  seen  before,  grew  in 
groups  in  the  more  level  places.  There  was  a  tree 
growing  in  many  places  whose  lower  branches  were 
covered  at  that  season  with  small  pink  flowers,  which 
lent  a  grateful  splash  of  colour  to  the  usually  gloomy 


LOOKING   UP   THE   MIMIKA   RIVE 


THE  UNFORDABLE   IWAKA  233 

green  of  the  jungle.  There  was  an  invigorating  air 
of  mountains  in  the  river  as  it  came  thundering  over 
the  huge  boulders  in  its  bed,  and  now  and  again  wc 
even  got  a  glimpse  through  the  trees  of  the  mountains 
themselves,  apparently  not  so  very  far  distant 
from  us. 

Two  days'  scrambling  up  the  valley  brought  us 
to  the  rest  of  the  party  at  the  depot  camp,  and  there  we 
learnt  the  very  unwelcome  news  of  a  discovery,  which 
seemed  likely  to  put  an  immediate  end  to  our  explora- 
tions. The  advanced  party  had  climbed  up  a  spur 
to  the  west  of  the  river  and  had  seen  that  the  Iwaka, 
instead  of  flowing  (as  we  imagined)  from  the  North- 
east by  an  apparently  wide  valley,  actually  flowed  from 
the  North  through  a  deep,  and  in  some  places  pre- 
cipitous gorge,  which  we  could  not  possibly  attempt 
to  traverse  with  our  feeble  cooUes  in  the  short  time 
that  remained  to  us. 

If  we  w^ere  to  advance  at  all,  it  was  necessary  for 
us  to  go  in  a  North-easterly  direction,  but  there  we  seemed 
to  be  completely  cut  off  by  the  torrent  of  the  Iwaka 
River.  Attempts  were  made  both  upstream  and  down- 
stream to  wade  across,  but  nobody  succeeded  in  doing 
it,  and  no  better  luck  attended  those  who  tried  to  make 
a  bridge  by  felling  a  tree  across  the  river,  the  bridge 
was  at  once  sw^ept  away.  As  a  last  expedient  a  large 
reward  of  money  was  offered  to  the  first  man  who 
should  find  a  way  across  the  river,  and  again  they  all 
set  out  full  of  hope  and  armed  with  axes.  The  luck 
fell  to  two  of  the  Gurkhas,  who  cleverly  felled  a  large 
tree  straight  across  the  river.     Had  it  fallen  a  few  feet 


234  PYGMIES  AND   PAPUANS 

to  one  side  or  the  other  it  would  not  have  been  long 
enough  to  reach  the  other  bank,  and  if  it  had  bent  a  little 
more  in  the  middle,  the  water  would  have  snatched  it 
up  like  a  straw  and  carried  it  away  in  a  moment.  But 
it  kept  just  clear  above  the  water  and  made  a  safe 
temporary  bridge  by  which  they  could  cross,  and  before 
nightfall  a  single  rope  of  rattan  was  securely  tied  across 
the  narrowest  part  of  the  river. 

During  the  night  the  river  rose  and  carried  away 
the  tree,  and  it  seemed  that  with  only  one  strand  of 
rattan  across  the  river  the  prospect  of  our  reaching  the 
other  side  was  not  very  good.  Nobody  seemed  inclined 
to  risk  the  passage,  even  with  the  promise  of  a  large 
reward,  until  one  of  the  Gurkhas,  Jangbir  by  name, 
said  he  would  go.  "  There  was  only  one  way  to  go 
"  over — hand  over  hand,  vith  a  rattan  round  his 
"  waist  held  by  us  in  case  the  bridge  strand  broke,  a 
"  very  likely  thing,  for  it  was  extremely  flimsy.  Again 
"  the  rope  to  hold  him  had  to  be  very  thin,  or  the 
"  weight  would  tear  him  from  his  hold.  He  got  across 
"  finely,  being  dragged  out  straight  by  the  torrent, 
"  until  nearly  over,  when  he  could  make  no  more 
"  headway.  The  rope  tied  to  his  waist  was  paid  out 
"  fast,  but  was  caught  by  the  current,  and  then  it  was 
"  touch  and  go.  Thus  he  hung  for  half  a  minute, 
"  dragged  out  in  a  horizontal  position.  If  both  rattans 
"  gave,  it  meant  certain  death  ;  if  he  let  go,  the  great 
"  strain  would  snap  the  rope  round  him  with  a  like 
*'  result.  The  rope  was  pulled  in  as  quickly  as  possible, 
"  and  then  the  lucky  thing  occurred.  The  strain  was 
"  too  great,  and  the  rope  we  were  pulling  on  snapped. 


A   RATTAN   BRIDGE  235 

"  This  freed  him,  and  he  pulled  himself  up  further  and 
"  gained  the  bank."  * 

When  once  a  man  was  on  the  other  side,  it  was 
simple  to  throw  over  another  rattan,  and  so  to  pull 
over  many  more  which  he  tied  to  the  trees  on  his  bank. 
On  our  side  of  the  river  was  a  large  boulder  with  a  hole 
conveniently  bored  through  it,  into  which  stout  posts 
were  jammed  Y-fashion,  and  over  them  the  rattans  were 
strained  and  fastened  to  the  trees  behind.  When  more 
men  were  able  to  cross  the  river,  a  similar  structure  was 
erected  on  the  other  bank. 

The  plan  of  the  bridge  was  very  simple,  two  hand- 
rails made  of  a  number  of  twisted  rattans,  and  a  foot 
piece  made  of  a  long  thin  tree,  which  was  secured  to  the 
hand-rails  by  loops  of  rattan.  The  span  of  the  bridge 
was  about  one  hundred  feet,  and  there  must  have  been 
several  hundred  yards  of  rattan  used  in  its  construction. 
The  credit  of  the  idea  and  of  most  of  the  work  in  making 
the  bridge  is  due  to  the  Gurkhas,  without  whose  help 
we  should  never  have  crossed  the  Iwaka. 

But  all  this  work  had  occupied  valuable  time,  and 
when  the  bridge  was  finished  we  found  that  we  had 
provisions  left  for  only  eight  days  longer.  On 
February  8th  Rawling,  Marshall  and  I,  with  three 
Gurkhas  and  nineteen  coolies,  and  Cramer  with  a  small 
party  of  convicts,  crossed  the  Iwaka  and  made  a  way 
Eastwards.  After  crossing  a  moderately  steep  ridge 
we  came  down  to  a  stream  of  marvellously  clear  water, 
which  brought  us  in  a  short  time  to  another  large  river 
flowing  out  of  the  mountains  in  a  Southerly  direction. 
*  Capt.  C.  G.  Rawling.     ComUry  Life.      20  May,  1911. 


236  PYGMIES  AND   PAPUANS 

So  many  rivers  are  there  in  this  region  that  this  was 
in  some  places  separated  by  less  than  two  miles  from  the 
Iwaka  ;  it  was  eventually  found  that  this  was  a  branch 
of  the  Wania,  a  large  river  which  enters  the  sea  in  a 
common  mouth  with  the  Kamura,  of  which  the  Iwaka 
is  a  tributary.  It  was  evident  that  this  river  came  from 
the  slopes  of  Mount  Godman  (9,500  ft.)  a  huge  mass 
immediately  to  the  North  of  us,  and  it  was  our  intention 
to  climb  up  on  to  the  ridge  of  that  mountain  in  the 
hopes  of  obtaining  a  view  of  the  country  to  the  North 
of  it,  and  of  the  Snow  Mountains. 

Going  up  the  valley  we  found  ourselves  in  the  midst 
of  really  beautiful  scenery.  The  mountains  soon  closed 
in  about  us,  and  the  river,  though  not  running  through 
an  actual  gorge,  was  walled  by  precipices  of  white  lime- 
stone rock,  now  on  one  side  and  now  on  the  other. 
This  necessitated  our  frequently  crossing  the  river,  a 
task  by  no  means  easy  even  when  the  water  is  low,  as 
it  happened  to  be  at  that  time.  The  best  way  of  crossing 
those  rapid  rivers  is  not  to  fight  your  way  upwards 
and  across  the  stream,  but  to  go  rather  with  the  stream 
in  a  sloping  direction  towards  the  other  bank,  and  to 
go  as  quickly  as  may  be.  The  bottom  is  made  of  very 
slippery  stones,  and  a  false  step  means  disaster,  as  we 
all  found  at  different  times,  but  in  that  way  you  cross 
with  far  less  exertion  than  by  breasting  the  stream. 

In  this  valley,  for  the  first  time  since  we  came  to 
New  Guinea,  we  found  several  flowering  plants  ;  among 
the  rocks  by  the  river  grew  clumps  of  a  large  pink  Balsam, 
and  on  the  moss  at  the  foot  of  the  tree  trunks  was  a 
beautiful  scarlet  Begonia  with  a   remarkably  hairy  leaf. 


LACK   OF  WATER  237 

There  was  a  curious  green-flowered  aroid  with  a  large 
blotched  leaf,  and  growing  everywhere  over  the  cliffs 
and  the  tree  trunks  were  Pitcher  plants  {Nepenthes)  of 
two  species. 

On  the  second  day  we  camped  on  a  sort  of  shelf 
on  the  hillside,  two  or  three  hundred  feet  above  the 
river,  and  as  our  progress  up  the  valley  had  been  so 
slow,  it  was  certain  that  w^e  should  not  be  able  to  reach 
the  summit  ridge  before  w^e  were  obliged  to  turn  back 
by  lack  of  food.  So  it  was  decided  to  go  straight  up  the 
spur  on  which  we  then  were  in  the  hope  that  from  the 
top  we  might  see  a  view  of  the  surrounding  country. 
On  the  following  day  we  climbed  up  about  two 
thousand  feet ;  the  hillside  was  exceedingly  steep,  and 
the  men  had  to  haul  themselves  up  by  the  roots  of  the 
trees  above  them. 

At  our  camp  on  the  hillside — there  was  not  a  square 
yard  of  level  ground — we  were  troubled  for  the  first  time 
in  New  Guinea  by  a  lack  of  water.  No  rain  had  fallen 
for  two  days,  and  the  ground  was  so  steep  that  all  the 
water  had  run  off,  and  it  was  a  long  time  before  the 
Gurkhas  found  a  trickle  of  water  in  a  gully  some 
distance  away,  whence  a  supply  was  laboriously  fetched 
to  the  camp. 

On  the  fourth  day  we  climbed  up  about  two 
thousand  feet  further,  but  with  a  great  deal  more  diffi- 
culty. The  trees  became  smaller  as  we  went  up,  but 
infinitely  denser,  and  for  a  great  part  of  the  way  we 
scrambled  up,  not  along  the  ground,  but  over  a 
fantastic  network  of  roots  and  trunks  of  dead  and  living 
trees,  all  of  them  covered  with  mosses  and  festooned 


238  PYGMIES  AND  PAPUANS 

with  a  wonderful  variety  of  creepers.  In  some  places 
we  were  clambering  over  the  topmost  branches  of  the 
tangle  of  vegetation,  and  in  others  we  were  burrowing 
into  mossy  caves  and  grottoes  among  the  roots.  It  was 
a  weird  and  rather  uncanny  place  and,  except  that  it 
lacked  the  beauty  of  colour  that  is  found  there,  it 
recalled  the  forest  at  ten  thousand  feet  in  Ruwenzori 
more  than  any  other  place  I  have  seen. 

At  5,000  feet  we  found  ourselves  on  the  ridge,  a 
narrow  knife-edged  spur  of  Mount  Godman,  and  there 
we  camped.  It  was  a  most  unlikely  looking  spot  for  a 
camp,  but  the  ridge  beyond  was  a  great  deal  worse — 
it  took  the  Gurkhas  many  hours  to  cut  the  narrowest 
track  along  it  for  half  a  mile — so  we  had  to  make  the 
best  of  the  place  that  we  had  reached.  A  number  of 
trees  were  cut  down  and  the  irregularities  of  the  ground 
were  more  or  less  filled  up  with  the  branches,  and 
there  we  pitched  our  tents  and  spread  our  beds.  There 
was  a  small  shrub  (a  species  of  Erica,  I  think),  which, 
when  burnt,  filled  the  air  with  a  delicious  smell  of 
incense,  strangely  out  of  keeping  with  our  surroundings. 

Though  we  had  been  surrounded  by  dense  clouds 
since  we  reached  the  ridge,  it  obstinately  refused  to 
rain  for  the  third  day  in  succession,  a  thing  quite  un- 
precedented in  our  experience  of  the  country.  Happily 
the  mosses,  which  clothed  everything,  were  full  of 
moisture  and  we  had  only  to  squeeze  them  like  sponges 
to  get  water  in  plenty  ;  the  coolies  of  course  complained 
of  the  dirty  colour  of  their  rice  when  it  was  cooked  in 
mossy  water,  but  we  found  that  it  gave  to  ours  an  un- 
familiar and  not  unpleasant  taste. 


THE    COCKSCOMB    MOUNTAIN     (10,050    FT.)    SEEN    FROM    MOUNT    GODMAN. 


A  WIDE  VIEW  239 

The  greater  part  of  the  next  day  was  spent  in  cutting 
a  way  along  the  ridge  to  a  point  (5800  ft.)  from  which 
it  was  hoped  that  a  view  of  the  country  might  be  seen. 
Long  before  the  track  was  cut  the  clouds  were  down 
upon  us,  and  no  view  could  be  seen,  so  we  decided  to 
stay  for  another  day,  although  w^e  had  only  one  day's 
food  remaining.  But  the  view  that  we  saw  on  the 
following  day  was  more  than  compensation  for  our 
rather  scanty  fare. 

Due  North  of  us,  and  rising  from  the  spur  on  which 
we  stood,  was  the  great  mass  of  Mount  Godman,  and 
to  the  West  of  that  the  even  more  imposing  peak  of 
Wataikwa  Mountain  (9923  ft.).  Between  the  two 
could  be  seen  a  part  of  the  tremendous  cliffs  of  Mount 
Leonard  Darwin  (13,882),  the  southern  face  of  which 
appears  to  show  an  almost  vertical  precipice  of  upwards 
of  ten  thousand  feet.  To  the  West  ridge  beyond  ridge 
of  forest-covered  heights  stretched  away  to  the  ranges 
of  the  Charles  Louis  Mountains  in  the  far  distance. 
To  the  East  rose  the  beautiful  three-topped  mountain 
called  the  Cock's  Comb  (10,050  ft.),  behind  and  to  the 
North  of  which  heavy  banks  of  clouds  showed  where 
the  snows  of  Mount  Carstensz  lay  hidden.  Five  thousand 
feet  below  us  the  mountains  ended  almost  abruptly, 
and  the  southern  half  of  the  circuit  of  our  view  was 
occupied  by  the  hideous  plain  of  dull  green  jungle  to  a 
hazy  line  of  the  sea  forty  miles  away.  Here  and  there 
the  sunlight  caught  the  waters  of  innumerable  rivers, 
and  we  could  distinctly  see  those  that  we  had  crossed, 
the  Tuaba,  Kamura,  Wataikwa,  and  the  Iwaka.  Further 
to  the  East  was  a  still  bigger  river,  the  Wania,  which  we 


^ 


240  PYGMIES  AND   PAPUANS 

could  trace  down  to  its  lagoon-like  estuary,  and  beyond 
it  was  the  Aiika,  and  a  very  distant  river,  possibly  the 
Newerip. 

Nobody  who  has  not  spent  a  year  and  more  in  a 
dreary  jungle  countr}^  where  you  are  seldom  more 
than  a  3'ard  or  two  from  the  nearest  tree,  and  where  the 
limit  of  your  view  is  the  opposite  bank  of  a  stagnant 
river,  can  realise  the  rest,  to  the  mind  and  to  the  eye 
alike,  that  a  wide  horizon  gives.  Although  there  were 
points  of  interest  to  be  seen  by  the  cartographical  eye, 
there  was  nothing,  excepting  the  outlines  of  some  of 
the  nearer  mountains,  of  beauty  in  that  view  ;  there 
were  no  striking  features  of  the  land  and  no  gorgeous 
effects  of  colour,  but  one  will  always  treasure  a  recol- 
lection of  the  physical  delight  of  seeing  far  and  wide 
to  the  horizon,  and  of  the  feeling  of  satisfaction  in  looking 
down  godlike  on  the  w^orld  that  we  had  so  painfully 
traversed. 

But  views,  like  all  other  good  things,  have  their 
ends,  and  ours  was  all  too  soon  interrupted  by  the  daily 
thick  blanket  of  white  cloud,  which  rolled  up  and  en- 
veloped us  until  nightfall.  We  groped  our  way  back 
to  the  camp  where  we  found  our  coolies  very  miserable 
and  shivering  with  cold — poor  wretches,  they  had 
never  before  endured,  nor  even  imagined,  a  temperature 
so  low  as  50°  F.  To  us  the  coolness  was  very  pleasant, 
and  it  provoked  a  hunger  to  which  we  had  long  been 
strangers ;  very  small  quantities  of  boiled  rice,  and 
chupatties  made  by  the  Gurkhas  of  mildewed  and 
weevilly  flour,  only  served  to  stimulate  our  appetites 
for  more. 


RARE   BIRDS  241 

On  the  following  day  we  retreated  hastily  down- 
hill by  the  way  we  had  come,  and  by  forced  marches, 
perhaps  a  little  accelerated  by  our  lack  of  food,  in  two 
da3^s  we  arrived  at  the  Iwaka  camp.  In  the  meantime 
Grant  had  been  camped  with  the  two  Dayak  collectors 
on  a  hill  about  three  thousand  feet  high  above  the  Iwaka, 
where  they  had  made  a  very  fine  collection  of  birds. 
Among  them  was  a  new  dwarf  species  of  Cassowary 
(Casuarius  claudi)  and  specimens  of  the  rare  Six- 
plumed  Bird  of  Paradise  (Parotia  meeki).  Another 
bird  very  characteristic  of  the  Iwaka  and  neighbouring 
valleys  is  the  Moustached  Swift  (Macropteryx  mystacea), 
which  measures  more  than  two  feet  across  the  wings, 
and  is  remarkable  for  its  long  pointed  tail  and  its 
tapering  white  moustache.  This  bird  seldom  appears 
until  late  in  the  afternoon,  when  it  is  seen  sailing 
majestically  with  outstretched  wings  at  a  height  over 
the  river. 

Near  the  Iwaka  on  a  hillside  laid  bare  by  a  land- 
slip we  found  two  seams  of  coal  a  few  inches  in  thick- 
ness ;  it  was  poor  stuff  and  only  burnt  with  difficulty 
when  put  into  a  fire.  Mr.  Lorentz  found  combustible 
coal  in  the  hihs  near  Mount  Wilhelmina,  and  it  is 
probable  that  a  careful  search  would  reveal  the  existence 
of  better  coal  in  this  region  too.  Near  the  same  place, 
as  well  as  in  one  or  two  other  localities,  we  found  indica- 
tions of  petroleum,  but  all  our  searches  for  gold  and 
other  precious  metals  resulted  in  nothing  except 
occasional  traces  of  copper. 

During  the  following  days,  while  we  were  stumbling 
back   to    Parimau   along   the   now   familiar   track,    we 


^ 


242  PYGMIES  AND   PAPUANS 

wondered  whether  we  should  be  the  last  as  well  as  being 
the  first  Europeans  to  penetrate  into  that  forsaken 
region.  It  has  been  mapped  now,  and  our  wanderings 
have  shown  that  it  is  not  the  wa}/  by  which  any  sane 
person  would  go  who  wished  to  explore  the  Snow  ]\Ioun- 
tains.  It  is  a  region  absolutely  without  inhabitants, 
and  the  Papuans,  who  live  on  the  upper  waters  of  the 
x-  Mimika  and  Kamura  rivers,  shun  it  even  as  a  hunting 
ground.  There  are  no  precious  metals  or  other  pro- 
ducts of  the  soil  to  be  won,  and  not  until  all  the  other 
forests  in  the  world  are  cut  down  will  its  timber  be  of 
value.  So  it  may  safely  be  supposed  that  it  will  long 
be  left  untouched  ;  the  Birds  of  Paradise  will  call  by 
day,  the  cassowaries  will  boom  by  night,  and  the  leeches 
will  stretch  themselves  anxiousl}'  on  their  leaves,  but  it 
will  be  a  long  time  before  another  white  man  comes  to 
disturb  them. 

Many  people  have  the  idea  that  a  tropical  forest  is 
full  of  gorgeous  flowers,  about  which  brilliant  butter- 
flies are  constantly  flitting  and  birds  of  splendid  plumage 
flash  from  tree  to  tree.  This  idea  is  no  doubt  due  in  a 
great  measure  to  the  habit  of  gathering  together  in  hot- 
houses the  flowering  plants  of  all  the  Tropics,  though 
they  may  have  come  from  Central  America,  from  Africa 
and  from  Borneo  or  Java.  It  is  true  that  there  are 
many  splendid  birds,  but  the  vegetation  is  so  dense 
that  you  seldom,  if  ever,  see  them  ;  the  brilliant  butter- 
flies are  mostly  out  of  sight  near  the  topmost  branches 
of  the  trees  ;  and  you  may  travel  for  days  together 
without  seeing  a  single  flowering  plant.  Many  of  the 
trees  are  covered  with  orchids  on  all  their  branches,  but 


THE    SUPPORTS    OF    A    PANDANUS     (30    FEET    HIGh). 


THE  DREARY   JUNGLE  243 

they  very  seldom  flower,  and  the  flowers  of  most  of  them 
are  so  insignificant  that  they  do  not  attract  your 
attention. 

Occasionally  you  may  see  high  above  your  head 
the  white  flower  of  a  Dendrohium  or  the  long  spike  of 
the  gigantic  Grammatophyllmn,  but  I  have  only  once 
(in  a  small  island  on  the  North  coast  of  New  Guinea) 
seen  such  a  mass  of  flowering  orchids  as  to  make  a  splash 
of  colour  in  the  view.  In  the  Tropics  there  is  nothing 
comparable  in  colour  with  the  blue  hyacinths,  the  fields 
of  buttercups,  or  the  gorse  and  hawthorns  of  this 
country. 

But  if  there  is  little  that  is  beautiful  in  the  jungle 
vegetation,  there  is  a  great  deal  that  is  curious  and 
interesting.  The  ubiquitous  Rattans,  climbing  Palms, 
are  a  constant  source  of  wonder  for  their  snake-like 
meanderings  through  the  jungle  until  they  climb  to 
the  top  of  some  tree  where  they  end  in  a  bunch  of  leaves. 
We  found  three  species  of  Screw  Pines  (Pandmms),  ^ 
fantastic  trees  on  stilts,  and  branching  like  irregular 
candelabra.  The  wood  of  the  Pandanus  is  very  tough, 
and  is  used  by  the  natives  for  making  bows  and  spears  ; 
the  long  ribbon-like  leaves  are  used  for  mats  and  the 
walls  of  their  huts,  and  the  fruits  of  some  are  eatable, 
but  exceedingly  hard.  One  species  bears  a  cluster  of 
small  red  fruit  about  the  size  of  a  banana  ;  and  another 
bears  a  huge  melon-shaped  fruit  of  a  brilliant  scarlet 
colour  and  weighing  as  much  as  thirty  pounds  and 
upwards. 

Equally  remarkable  are  the  trees  which  stand 
propped  on  a  number  of  aerial  roots  and  seem,  as  Mr. 


</ 


244  PYGMIES  AND   PAPUANS 

Wallace  noted,*  to  have  started  growing  in  mid  air  ; 
where  several  of  these  trees  grow  together,  it  is  difficult 
to  say  where  one  ends  and  another  begins.  Too  rarely 
you  come  across  a  magnificent  forest  tree  (usually,  I 
beheve,  a  species  of  Dammara)  supported  on  huge 
buttresses,  which  begin  twenty  or  more  feet  above  the 
ground  and  spread  out  for  many  yards  from  the  foot 
of  the  tree.  We  had  occasion  to  cut  down  some  of 
these  trees,  and  found  the  wood  intensely  hard  ;  if  there 
were  seven  or  eight  buttresses  a  single  one  would  still 
hold  up  the  tree  after  all  the  rest  had  been  cut.  When 
the  tree  had  been  felled,  the  stump  looked  like  a  great 
starfish  sprawling  over  the  ground  with  a  centre  not 
more  than  a  foot  across,  while  the  trunk  a  few  feet 
up  had  been  a  yard  or  more  in  thickness. 

It  has  happened  to  me  to  walk  through  many 
hundreds  of  miles  of  forest  in  different  parts  of  the 
world,  but  I  have  never  seen  any  so  dreary  as  that 
New  Guinea  jungle  with  its  mud,  its  leeches,  its  almost 
unbroken  stiUness,  and  its  universal  air  of  death. 
Happily  the  mind  of  man  is  of  a  curiously  selective 
habit,  and  it  chooses  to  retain  only  the  more  pleasant 
things  ;  you  forget  the  long  w^et  weeks  of  rain  and  mud, 
the  hunger  and  the  nasty  food,  and  remember  rather 
those  glorious  moments  when  you  came  out  of  the 
twilit  jungle  into  an  open  river  bed  and  saw  the  distant 
mountains,  or  those  rare  sunny  afternoons  when  the 
"  implacable  cicala "  creaked  in  the  treetops  above 
your  tent. 

There  are  indeed  a  thousand  things  to  interest  one 
*  Malay  Archipelago.    Chapter  V. 


FUTURE  TRAVELLERS  245 

in  the  jungle,  however  blank  and  monotonous  it  may 
seem  to  be.  The  trouble  is  that  so  much  of  your  atten- 
tion in  these  places  must  be  devoted  to  the  trivial  duties 
of  the  day,  the  eternal  question  of  food,  the  care  of 
the  sick,  the  precautions  against  floods,  and  so  on,  that 
but  little  time  is  left  over  for  studying  the  hidden  wonders 
of  the  world  about  you.  The  geographers  and  the 
naturalists  of  the  future  wdll  live  in  comfortable  ships  ^ 
on  the  coast,  whence  they  wdll  fly  daily  into  the  heart 
of  New  Guinea  where  they  will  find  things  undreamt 
of  now.  But  the  time  for  that  is  not  yet,  and  in  the 
meantime  those  who  plod  on  foot  do  the  best  they  can. 


CHAPTER  XVIII 

Departnye  from  Parimau — Parting  Gifts — Mock  Lamentation — Rauling 
explores  Kamitra  River— Start  for  the  Wania—Lose  the  Propeller— 
A  Perilous  Anchorage — Unpleasant  Night — Leave  the  Motor  Boat — 
Village  of  Nimc — Arrival  of  "  Zivaan  "  with  Dayaks — Their 
Departure — Waiting  for  the  Ship — Taking  Leave  of  the  People  of 
Wakatimi — Sail  from  New  Guinea — Ke  Islands — Banda — Hospi- 
tality of  the  Netherlands  Government — Lieutenant  Cramer — Sum- 
hawa — Bali — Return  to  Singapore  and  England — One  or  T'wo 
Reflexions. 

After  our  return  to  Parimau  in  February,  Rawling  and 
Grant  went  down  to  Wakatimi,  while  Marshall  and  1 
spent  a  week  in  visiting  the  village  of  the  Tapiro  in 
a  last  but  vain  attempt  to  see  the  pygmy  women.  The 
first  few  days  of  March  were  occupied  in  packing  up 
the  accumulated  odds  and  ends  of  our  year's  occupa- 
tion and  on  the  gth  of  March  we  were  ready  to  depart. 
We  had  told  the  natives  that  we  were  going  away  and 
for  days  before  we  went  they  pestered  us  with  questions 
as  to  whether  we  were  coming  back  and  what  we  would 
give  them  when  we  went,  and  they  quickly  decided 
which  of  our  houses  they  intended  to  occupy. 

On  the  morning  of  our  departure  from  Parimau 
we  allowed  no  natives  to  come  into  the  camp  until  all 
the  canoes  were  loaded  up  and  ready  for  a  start. 
Then  we  called  out  to  them  to  come  over  and  about 
forty  men  and  boys  splashed  across  the  river  and  came 
swarming   into   the   camp.     We   had   kept   for   them   a 


BUTTRESSED    TREE;- 


PARTING  WITH  THE  NATIVES  247 

number  of  axe-heads,  knives  and  other  pieces  of  steel 
and  iron,  and  when  the  people  saw  what  they  were 
going  to  be  given  they  became  a  crowd  of  madmen. 
I  distributed  the  things,  while  Marshall  stood  by  with 
a  big  piece  of  wood  and  kept  them  from  rushing  into  the 
place  and  seizing  everything  at  once.  They  shouted 
and  raved  and  screamed  and  grew  almost  pale  with 
excitement,  and  the  various  expressions  of  greed  and 
cunning  and  anger  and  delight  in  their  faces  were  most 
interesting  to  watch. 

After  we  had  given  them  their  presents  we  walked 
towards  the  canoes,  and  then  they  began  to  set  up  their 
horrible  wail.  A  few  of  them  picked  up  pieces  of  cloth 
and  matting,  through  the  middle  of  which  they  thrust 
their  heads  and  then  began  to  howl  with  their  hands 
over  their  eyes.  I  took  a  last  look  round  the  houses 
to  see  that  nothing  of  value  had  been  left  behind  and  on 
going  to  the  store-house  I  met  a  man,  one  of  our  best 
friends,  coming  out  of  it  with  a  tin  of  rice  under  his 
arm.  He  immediately  put  down  the  tin,  tore  off  from 
a  climbing  bean  that  grew  by  the  house  a  trail  of 
leaves  a  yard  or  two  long,  and  wound  them  about  his 
head  and  body.  Then  he  burst  into  tears  and  the 
most  heartrending  sobs,  which  changed  in  a  moment, 
when  he  caught  my  eye,  into  a  shout  of  laughter. 

When  we  finally  got  into  the  canoes  all  the  men 
came  down  to  the  water's  edge  and  wailed,  while  some 
of  them  sat  down  in  the  water  and  smeared  them- 
selves with  mud.  In  the  meantime  we  could  see  their 
women  going  off  into  the  jungle  carrying  tins  fuh  of 
their  possessions  to  hide  there,  and  it  is  probable  that 


248  PYGMIES  AND  PAPUANS 

after  we  left  there  was  a  good  deal  of  quarrelling  and 
fighting  over  the  spoil.  The  wailing  is  a  purely  per- 
functory politeness,  but  I  think  there  were  a  few  men 
who  were  genuinely  sorry  to  lose  us.  On  the  following 
day  a  strong  ebb-tide  bore  us  quickly  down  to  Waka- 
timi  and  our  navigations  of  the  upper  Mimika  river 
were  at  an  end. 

In  the  meantime  Rawling  had  made  an  interesting 
exploration  of  the  coast  and  of  the  river  mouths  to  the 
East  of  the  Mimika.  The  motor  boat,  which  had  been 
badly  damaged  some  months  earlier,  had  been  repaired 
by  two  Dutch  pioneer  soldiers  and  was  more  or  less 
sea-worthy.  In  a  four  days'  trip  he  had  entered  the 
Atuka  river,  or  rather  the  Atuka  mouth  of  the  Ka- 
mura  river,  a  few  miles  up  which  he  came  to  Atuka,  a 
large  village  of  about  six  hundred  huts  surrounded 
by  coconut  palms  and  tobacco  plantations.  Proceed- 
ing up  the  river  into  the  main  Kamura  river  he  went 
on  almost  to  the  junction  with  the  Wataikwa  river, 
thus  filling  in  a  large  gap  of  unknown  river.  On  his 
way  back  he  chose  the  left  (East)  branch  and  after 
passing  the  village  of  Kamura,  where  the  inhabitants 
showed  an  inclination  to  plunder  the  boat,  he  came 
to  the  lake-like  estuary  of  the  Kamura  and  Wania 
rivers  and  entered  the  sea  by  a  deep  channel.  It  is 
worth  noting  that  the  inhabitants  of  Atuka  and  Ka- 
mura villages,  many  of  whom  visited  us  two  or  three 
times  at  Wakatimi,  are  of  a  decidedly  lower  type  (in 
appearance)  than  the  people  of  the  Mimika  district, 
though  the  distance  that  separates  them  is  only  a  few 
miles.    They   have   a   fiercer   and   more   brutal   aspect 


EXCURSION   TO   THE  WANIA  249 

and  many  of  them,  both  men  and  women  go  completely 
naked,  a  habit  which  is  never  practised  by  the  people 
of  Wakatimi.  Scarcity  of  petrol  and  an  irregularly 
sparking  plug  brought  that  excursion  to  an  untimely 
end,  before  the  lower  waters  of  the  Wania  had  been 
investigated. 

From  our  hill-top  (see  p.  239)  the  Wania  was 
evidently  by  far  the  most  considerable  of  all  the  rivers 
of  the  district,  and  apart  from  our  desire  to  see  the 
people  of  the  Wania,  of  whom  the  Mimika  natives 
always  spoke  with  great  respect,  we  felt  bound  to 
explore  that  river  as  far  as  possible.  Accordingly  on 
March  14,  Rawling,  Marshall  and  I,  with  a  Dutch 
pioneer,  two  Gurkhas  and  three  coolies,  set  off  in  the 
motor  boat  towing  the  yawl,  a  ship's  boat  about 
twenty  feet  long,  laden  with  tents  and  provisions  for 
a  week.  In  a  few  hours  we  arrived  at  the  mouth  of 
the  Wania  river  and  found  that  owing  to  the  low  tide 
there  was  no  way  of  crossing  the  sand-bar  that  lay 
across  the  entrance.  This  circumstance  was  the  more 
remarkable,  because  only  a  few  days  earlier  Rawling 
had  come  through  this  bar  by  a  very  deep  channel. 
The  frequent  changes  in  the  banks  make  the  naviga- 
tion of  this  coast  and  particularly  of  the  river  mouths 
exceedingly  difficult. 

On  this  occasion  the  sea  was  already  rather  rough, 
so  that  we  could  not  anchor  and  wait  until  the  tide 
rose,  and  as  the  wind  was  increasing  in  force  there 
was  nothing  for  it  but  to  turn  back  and  try  to  take 
shelter  in  one  of  the  rivers  between  the  Wania  and  the 
Mimika,   if   not   in   the   Mimika   itself.     All   went   well 


250  PYGMIES  AND   PAPUANS 

for  a  few  miles  and  then,  as  happened  frequently,  the 
leather  band  jumped  off  the  driving  wheel  and  the 
engine  was  stopped.  When  it  was  replaced  and  the 
engine  was  started  again,  there  was  no  churning  of 
water  in  the  stern  and  we  realized  with  some  conster- 
nation that  we  had  lost  our  propeller.  We  were  about 
twelve  miles  from  the  mouth  of  the  Mimika,  in  a 
shallow  sea  of  less  than  three  fathoms,  with  a  strong 
\\ind  blowing  towards  the  shore  where  the  waves  began 
to  break  within  a  few  hundred  yards  of  us,  and  we 
were  ten  men  with  a  heavy  motor  boat  and  a  heavily- 
laden  yawl  to  get  along  somehow.  We  put  four  men 
into  the  yawl  to  row  and  they  tried  to  tow,  but  the 
current  was  so  strong  against  them  that  they  made 
no  headway  at  all,  so  we  had  to  anchor  where  we  were 
and  hoped  for  better  things.  We  pitched  and  rolled 
and  bumped  about  most  horribly  and  soon  most  of  the 
party  were  deadly  sea-sick,  perhaps  luckily  for  them, 
because  in  that  condition  one  cares  nothing  for  the 
prospect  of  shipwreck. 

Our  anchor  rope  was  short  and  none  too  strong, 
and  the  rope  between  us  and  the  yawl  was  thoroughl}^ 
rotten — it  had  snapped  once  earlier  in  the  day — and 
we  expected  that  every  sudden  jerk  of  the  lumpy  sea 
would  break  it  again.  Had  that  happened,  there 
might  have  been  a  nasty  accident,  as  the  men  were 
too  sick  to  row,  even  if  they  had  known  the  art,  and 
their  chances  of  swimming  ashore  through  a  sea  swarming 
with  sharks  were  not  very  bright.  Our  own  predicament 
in  the  helpless  motor  boat  would  have  been  unpleasant 
too,  if  the  yawl  had  gone  adrift,  but  happily  the  ropes 


SCREW  PINES   {Paiidanus). 


AN  UNPLEASANT  EXPERIENCE  251 

held.  Another  drawback  was  that  the  motor  boat 
leaked  like  a  sieve,  so  that  a  man  was  kept  constantly 
at  work  baling  her  out,  and  we  did  not  know  that  the 
strain  might  not  open  her  old  timbers  even  more. 
There  was  a  glorious  full  moon  which  one  would  have 
enjoyed  seeing  from  the  smooth  deck  of  a  steamer, 
but  there  we  could  only  think  how  uncomfortable  it 
was  13'ing  (without  having  had  dinner)  on  boxes  and 
tins  and  gear  of  all  sorts  huddled  in  the  bottom  of  the 
boat. 

The  wind  continued  all  through  the  night  and  the 
sea  did  not  moderate,  so  at  daylight,  after  having  been 
for  sixteen  hours  at  anchor,  we  decided  to  leave  the 
motor  boat  hoping  that  it  would  not  be  swamped  before 
we  were  able  to  come  back  and  fetch  it.  We  all  got 
into  the  yawl,  w'hich  we  pulled  through  quite  a  nasty 
sea  for  about  three  miles  to  a  sand-bank  in  the  estuary 
of  the  Timura  river,  where  we  camped  until  the  rising 
tide  enabled  us  to  reach  the  mainland  about  midnight. 
On  the  following  day,  the  sea  having  become  calmer, 
we  rescued  the  motor  boat,  which  w^as  by  that  time 
half  full  of  water,  and  towed  it  slowly  to  the  Timura. 

But  it  was  a  most  arduous  business  and  without  the 
help  of  a  party  of  natives,  who  fortunately  came  along 
the  coast  in  canoes  and  were  prevailed  upon  to  assist 
us  in  paddhng,  we  should  never  have  been  able  to 
bring  back  both  of  the  boats.  The  arrival  of  the  motor 
boat  at  the  Mimika  on  the  fitth  day,  propelled  by  native 
paddles  instead  of  by  its  own  power,  was  not  a  \ery 
dignified  affair— it  resembled  rather  the  formerly  familiar 
sight  of  the  motor-car  in  tow  of  a  horse  from  the  plough 


252 


PYGMIES  AND   PAPUANS 


— but  it  was  a  piece  of  good  fortune  that  it  and  we 
returned  at  all. 

We  stopped  for  a  night  on  the  way  at  Nime,  a  village 
at  the  mouth  of  the  Keaukwa  River.  This  is  a  very 
large  village — I  counted  four  hundred  and  thirty  huts 

but  there  were  hardly  a  dozen  people  in  the  place, 

the  whole  population  having  gone  off  on  one  of  their 
periodical  migrations  to  a  vegetable  diet  up  the  river. 
It  was  evident  from  the  immense  piles  of  fishbones  and 
empty  shells  about  the  houses  that  the  inhabitants  must 
live  largely  by  fishing,  when  they  are  there.  The  houses 
are  better  made  than  those  at  Wakatimi,  and  they  are 
arranged  in  terraces  and  crescents  along  the  water's 
edge.  It  w^as  there  that  we  saw  the  elaborate  dancing- 
houses  described  above  (p.  143). 

Just  as  we  paddled  laboriously  into  the  Mimika 
estuary  we  saw  far  down  on  the  horizon  the  smoke  of 
a  steamer,  and  in  an  hour  or  two  a  white  painted  vessel, 
which  turned  out  to  be  the  Dutch  Government  ship 
Zwaan,  drew  inshore  and  anchored  outside  the  bar. 
We  naturally  supposed  that  this  was  a  ship  that  had 
come  to  take  aw^ay  the  expedition,  as  we  had  informed 
the  Government  some  months  earUer  that  we  hoped  to 
be  ready  to  leave  the  country  by  the  end  of  March. 
But  that  communication  had  taken  a  long  time,  as 
everything  does  in  those  regions,  in  reaching  its  des- 
tination, and  the  Zwaan  had  come,  not  to  take  away 
the  expedition,  but  to  bring  the  means  of  prolonging 
the  expedition  still  further. 

It  appeared  that  in  the  previous  December  the  Com- 
mittee   of    the    Expedition    at    home,    hearing    of    our 


LATE  ARRIVAL   OF  DAYAKS  253 

scarcity  of  coolies  some  months  earlier,  had  decided 
that  a  further  supply  of  coolies  should  be  sent  to  us 
without  delay.  Though  cables  work  quickly  enough 
between  London  and  Singapore,  communications  beyond 
that  are  matters  of  days  and  weeks,  and  it  was  not  until 
the  1 8th  of  March  that  the  party  of  Dayak  coolies, 
who  had  been  engaged  in  Sarawak  b}^  the  kind  permis- 
sion of  H.H.  the  Raja,  arrived  at  the  Mimika.  They 
were  in  the  charge  of  Mr.  C.  B.  Kloss,  Curator  of  the 
Government  Museum  at  Kuala  Lumpor,  who  had 
brought  with  him  six  months'  provision  for  himself  and 
the  men.  Almost  at  the  same  time  that  the  Com- 
mittee in  England  had  taken  this  step,  we  in  New  Guinea 
had  decided  that  three  months  more  was  as  long  as 
we  were  prepared  to  stay  in  the  country,  and  a  request 
had  been  sent  to  the  Dutch  Government  to  take  us 
away  at  the  end  of  that  time. 

When  the  Zwaan  arrived  we  were  all  ready  to 
depart,  and  Cramer's  party,  numbering  more  than  a 
hundred  men,  w^ere  chafing  with  impatience  to  get 
away  ;  it  would  have  been  impossible  for  the  Govern- 
ment to  keep  them  there  yet  another  six  months.  Even 
if  there  had  been  a  possibility  of  our  staying  on  in  the 
country,  the  number  of  Dayaks,  thirty-eight,  was 
quite  insufficient  for  a  long  journey  into  the  interior 
and  the  prospect  of  reaching  the  moderately  high 
ground  of  Tapiro  Mountain,  the  best  that  could  be 
hoped  for,  was  not  sufficient  inducement  to  tempt  any 
one  to  paddle  again  up  the  Mimika  river.  Added  to 
this  was  the  further  consideration  that  in  a  w^eek  or 
two  the  more  rainy  season  would  begin  and  that  for 


254  PYGMIES  AND  PAPUANS 

five  or  six  months  very  little  progress  would  be  possible 
even  with  an  unlimited  supply  of  the  best  coolies. 

So  there  was  nothing  for  it  but  for  Uv.  Kloss  and 
the  Dayaks  to  go  back  in  the  Zwaan,  which  sailed  for 
Amboina  on  the  following  day,  taking  also  Marshall, 
as  many  sick  and  useless  coolies  and  soldiers  as  could 
be  crammed  on  board,  and  an  urgent  request  to  the 
authorities  to  remove  us  as  soon  as  might  be.  The 
Dayak  episode  was  altogether  an  unfortunate  one  ; 
had  the  men  reached  us  six  months  earlier,  we  should 
have  made  a  very  good  use  of  them,  few  though  they 
were  ;  but  coming  as  they  did  when  we  were  on  the 
point  of  leaving  the  country  they  merely  illustrated 
the  uselessness  of  attempting  to  conduct  an  expedition 
from  the  other  side  of  the  world. 

During  the  next  three  weeks  we  waited  for  the 
ship  with  what  patience  we  could.  By  that  time  we 
were  all  somewhat  stale  and  disinclined  for  any  exer- 
tion, and  those  days  of  waiting  at  Wakatimi  seemed 
interminably  long.  The  only  pleasant  moments  were 
when  on  fine  evenings  we  could  sit  outside  and  watch 
the  sun  go  down  behind  the  palm  trees  across  the 
river  and  hope  each  time  that  that  would  be  the  last. 
There  were  times  when  for  two  or  three  days  a  strong 
wind  blew  and  we  could  hear  the  surf  thundering  on 
the  beach,  and  we  knew  that  even  if  the  ship  came  it 
could  not  approach  the  shore.  Then  there  were  false 
alarms  of  whistles  having  been  heard,  or  of  boats  seen 
coming  up  the  river,  but  our  suspense  at  last  came  to 
an  end  on  April  5th,  when  a  steam-launch  towing  a 
string  of  empty  boats  came   puffing  up  to  the  camp. 


DEPARTURE  FROM   WAKATIMI  255 

where  they  were  received  with  immense  enthusiasm. 
They  came  from  the  Dutch  gunboat  Mataram,  which  had 
been  despatched  to  take  away  the  native  escort,  and 
the  next  day  came  boats  from  the  Zivaan,  which  had 
come  to  transport  us  and  our  men  and  the  remaining 
stores  of  the  expedition  to  Amboina.  There  foUowed 
two  da3^s  of  busy  loading  and  coming  and  going  of  boats, 
during  which  our  impatience  to  be  off  was  a  httle 
allayed  by  the  forethought  of  one  of  the  officers  of 
the  Mataram,  who  stayed  ashore  with  us  and  had  brought 
with  him  that  rare  luxury,  bread,  and  one  or  two 
other  welcome  delicacies. 

Before  sunset  on  April  7th  the  last  boat  was  loaded 
and  ready  to  go,  and  we  had  an  amusing  leave-taking 
with  the  people  of  Wakatimi.  It  was  known  that 
we  were  going  to  depart  and  for  some  days  people  from 
other  villages  had  been  crowding  into  Wakatimi.  A 
large  number  of  men  were  waiting  outside  the  fence 
of  the  camp,  but  when  we  invited  them  to  come  inside 
they  became  unaccountably  shy  and  would  not  venture. 
So  I  went  outside  and  took  one  bolder  fellow,  a  man 
whom  we  knew  well,  and  led  him  by  the  arm  to  a  hut, 
where  there  were  a  quantity  of  old  mosquito  nets  ;  he 
seized  one  and  bolted  as  fast  as  he  could  run,  apparently 
thinking  that  there  was  something  suspicious  in  this 
unw^onted  generosity.  Then  a  few  more  came  very 
warily  after  him  and  then  fifty  or  sixty  men  dashed 
into  the  house  and  out  again  as  soon  as  they  had 
snatched  up  something,  it  mattered  not  what.  Most  of 
them  were  armed  with  spears  or  bows  and  arrows,  and 
as  there  were  men  fighting  to  get  into  and  out  of  the 


256  PYGMIES  AND  PAPUANS 

house  at  the  same  time  it  was  wonderful  that  nobody 
was  damaged. 

When  the  people  in  Wakatimi  saw  what  was  going 
on  in  the  camp  they  began  to  yell  with  excitement, 
and  in  a  few  seconds  twenty  or  more  canoes  packed 
with  men  came  paddling  madly  across  the  river  ;  they 
were  so  excited  that  some  of  them  upset  the  canoes,  a 
thing  they  very  seldom  do,  and  they  had  to  swim  to 
the  shore.  For  ten  minutes  or  so  the  camp  was  a 
pandemonium.  About  two  hundred  raving  lunatics  were 
dashing  madl}^  from  one  house  to  another  and  carrying 
off  boxes,  sacks,  mosquito  nets,  cases  of  empty  bottles, 
bits  of  iron,  tables,  beds,  mats  and  everything  they 
could  possibly  move.  They  howled  and  raved  and 
fought  like  wild  beasts  in  a  manner  horrible  to  see. 

Several  women  came  over  and  danced  and  sang  in 
a  canoe  just  in  front  of  the  camp,  while  the  crowd  of 
people  who  had  not  been  able  to  find  a  place  in  the 
canoes  shrieked  from  the  opposite  bank.  WTien  they 
could  carry  no  more,  they  loaded  their  canoes  to  the 
brim  with  miscellaneous  cargoes  and  went  back  across 
the  river  to  the  village.  There  they  at  once  began 
to  squabble  over  the  spoils,  and  the  last  we  heard  of 
Wakatimi,  as  darkness  came  down,  were  the  shrill 
shrieks  of  quarrelsome  women  and  the  angry  shouts 
of  men. 

New  Guinea  treated  us  kindly  in  farewell,  and  we 
steamed  down  the  river  in  a  glorious  starlight,  the 
kind  of  night  which  many  people  think  is  usual  in  the 
tropics,  but  is  in  fact  most  lamentably  rare.  We  left 
Cramer   on   board  the  Mataram  and  went   on    to  the 


THE   LAST  OF   NEW   GUINEA  257 

Zwaan,  where  we  soon  were  lulled  to  sleep  by  the 
pleasant  music  of  the  screw.  Early  the  next  morning 
a  dull  cloud  on  the  northern  horizon  was  our  last  view 
of  New  Guinea,  and  before  night  we  had  reached  civi- 
lisation again  in  the  anchorage  of  Dobo. 

Two  days  later  we  came  to  the  K6  Islands  and  went 
ashore  to  visit  the  Cathohc  Mission  at  Toeal.  There  is 
nothing  of  great  interest  to  see  there  except  the  magni- 
ficent "  iron  wood  "  timber,  which  is  cut  in  the  forests 
of  the  larger  island,  and  is  used  for  boat-building  ;  it 
is  obtained  in  larger  pieces  than  teak,  and  it  is  said  to  be 
equally  good.  The  fathers  occupy  themselves  with 
carpentry  and  boat-building  and  with  teaching  a  class 
of  small  children.  The  few  people  whom  we  saw 
appeared  to  be  of  a  mixed  Malay-Papuan  race  and  were 
dressed  in  unspeakably  dirty  clothes. 

From  Toeal  we  went  on  to  Banda,  where  we  spent 
a  day  of  pouring  rain,  a  great  pity,  for  a  walk  through 
the  nutmeg  woods  of  Banda  is  one  of  the  pleasantest 
excursions  in  the  islands,  and  a  day  later  we  dropped 
anchor  in  the  harbour  of  Amboina. 

It  will  be  fitting  to  remark  here  that  on  the 
outward  journey  from  Java  to  New  Guinea  and  on  our 
return  from  the  Mimika  to  Amboina,  the  members  of 
the  expedition  were  the  guests  of  the  Netherlands 
Government.  The  thanks  of  the  Secretary  of  State 
for  Foreign  Affairs  have  been  conveyed  to  the  captains 
of  the  ships  and  to  the  other  officials,  who  helped  the 
expedition  in  a  hundred  different  ways. 

At  Amboina,  where  we  waited  a  few  days  for  the 
arrival    of    a    steamer    to    Singapore,    we    parted    with 

s 


258  PYGMIES  AND   PAPUANS 

Cramer,  who  was  prevented  by  a  sharp  attack  of  fever 
from  coming  with  us.  He  was  the  one  other  man, 
beside  Rawhng,  Marshall  and  myself,  who  remained 
with  the  expedition  from  the  beginning  to  the  end, 
and  it  is  not  paying  him  an  empty  compliment  to 
say  that  few  other  people  would  have  managed  more 
successfully  than  he  did  to  live  with  a  party  of  foreigners 
in  circumstances,  which  were  often  exceedingly  difficult. 

We  sailed  from  Amboina  on  April  17th  in  the  mail 
steamer  Van  Riebeeck,  and  amongst  our  fellow-passengers 
we  found  Captain  Van  der  Bie  and  Lieut.  Van  der 
Wenn  (Netherlands  Navy),  both  of  whom  were  re- 
turning to  Java  invalided  from  the  expedition  to  the 
Island  River  in  New  Guinea.  The  expedition  had 
penetrated  a  long  way  into  the  interior  of  the  country, 
but  all  the  Europeans  fell  ill  and  the  expedition  was 
withdrawn  a  few  months  later. 

After  calling  at  Macassar  we  went  South  past  the 
Postilion  Islands  to  the  little  known  island  of  Sumbawa, 
where  we  went  ashore  for  a  few  hours  at  Sumbawa 
Pesar.  It  looked  a  pretty  country  with  well-wooded 
hills  and  level  cultivated  plains.  We  were  much  struck 
by  the  appearance  of  the  natives,  who  have  a  longer 
type  of  face  and  a  much  fairer  skin  than  any  other  of 
the  Malay  races  I  have  seen.  The  men  all  go  armed 
with  a  kris,  and  they  smoke  cigars  of  an  incredible 
length. 

From  Sumbawa  we  steamed  along  the  Northern 
shore  of  Lombok,  from  whose  Peak  (12,000  feet),  the 
clouds  rolled  off  magnificently  at  sunset,  and  early 
the  next  morning  we  came  into  the  harbour  of  Bulehng 


ISLAND   OF  BALI  259 

in  the  island  of  Bali.  There  we  took  a  native  carriage 
[sado),  and  drove  a  few  miles  out  into  the  country  to 
see  a  ver}^  interesting  Hindu  temple,  where  there  are 
some  remarkable  good  stone  carvings,  which  shew 
signs  of  being  carefully  tended.  The  Hindu  religion 
still  survives,  though  it  cannot  be  said  to  flourish,  both 
in  this  island  and  in  Lombok.  The  native  villages 
that  we  saw  have  quite  characteristic  features  of  their 
own  ;  they  are  surrounded  by  a  high  mud  wall  with 
a  brick  coping  and  are  guarded  by  a  swarm  of  fiercely 
barking  dogs.  Inside  the  wall,  if  you  are  bold  enough 
to  enter,  you  find  a  neatly  swept  compound,  round  the 
sides  of  which  are  well-made  dwelling-houses,  and  in 
the  middle  are  granaries  of  rice  ;  both  the  houses  and 
the  granaries  are  raised  on  posts  several  feet  above 
the  ground  and  all  are  neatly  thatched  with  rice  straw. 
In  the  corner  of  the  compound  is  a  place  set  apart  for 
a  number  of  little  stone  shrines,  some  of  them  very 
elaborately  carved,  in  which  votive  offerings  of  flowers 
and  fruit  are  placed. 

The  Balinese  seem  to  be  a  sturdy  and  industrious 
people  ;  they  have  a  free  and  independent  appearance, 
very  different  from  that  of  their  somewhat  grovelling 
neighbours,  the  Javanese.  The  roads  are  picturesquely 
lined  with  shady  trees,  and  a  very  pleasant  feature  of 
them  is  the  number  of  little  mouse-coloured  ponies, 
which  carry  panniers  on  a  high-peaked  saddle  and  are 
the  coolies  of  Bali  ;  most  of  them  have  an  elaborate 
leather  harness  and  many  carry  a  large  number  of 
little  bells,  which  make  a  pretty  music  along  the  roads. 
They  appear  to  be  hungry  little  animals,  and  they  have 


26o  PYGMIES  AND  PAPUANS 

the  rare  and  valuable  faculty  of  being  able  to  eat  out  of 
a  basket  tied  round  their  necks  as  they  walk  along. 
The  country,  what  little  we  saw  of  it,  looks  extremely 
prosperous,  and  the  beauty  of  the  cultivated  lands, 
interrupted  here  and  there  by  groves  of  trees  and 
backed  by  mountains,  is  beyond  dispute. 

From  Bali  to  Java  is  only  a  few  hours'  steaming, 
and  from  Batavia  another  ship  brought  us  to  Singapore, 
where  we  arrived  on  May  2nd.  A  month  later  we 
landed  in  England  and  the  English  Expedition  to 
Dutch  New  Guinea,  1910-11,  was  a  thing  of  the  past. 

It  is  not  easy  to  put  down  in  words  what  were  our 
thoughts  on  our  homeward  journey  from  the  Mimika 
River  to  Plymouth  Sound.  Naturally  enough  there 
were  feelings  of  pleasant  anticipation  in  returning  to 
the  comforts  of  civilised  life,  and  there  were  feelings 
of  profound  thankfulness  that  we  had  left  behind  us 
neither  our  bones  nor  our  health,  as  too  many  others 
less  fortunate  had  done.  There  was  also  a  sense  of 
(I  think  pardonable)  satisfaction  at  having  accomplished 
something  ;  the  surveyors  had  made  an  accurate  map 
of  a  large  tract  of  quite  unknown  country ;  the 
naturalists  had  made  valuable  collections  of  birds  and 
animals,  and  some  most  interesting  races  of  men  had 
been  visited  and  studied. 

But  beneath  these  was  another  feeling  of  vague 
disappointment.  We  had  set  out  full  of  hope,  if  not 
of  confidence,  of  reaching  the  Snow  Mountains,  and 
the  disappointment  of  not  having  set  foot  on  them 
w^as  aggravated  by  the  fact  that  we  had  been  so  long 
in  sight  of  them.     It  was  exasperating  beyond  words 


THE  END  261 

to  see  the  mountains  month  after  month  only  forty 
miles  away  and  not  to  be  able  to  move  a  foot  in  their 
direction  ;  to  study  them  so  that  we  came  to  know 
the  changing  patches  of  lower  snow  and  almost  the 
very  crevasses  in  the  glaciers,  and  still  to  be  forced 
to  be  content  with  looking  and  longing  for  "the  hills 
and  the  snow  upon  the  hills." 

To  look  for  fifteen  months  at  that  great  rock  preci- 
pice, and  those  long  fields  of  snow  untrodden  yet  by 
foot  of  man,  to  anticipate  the  delight  of  attaining  to 
the  summits  and  to  wonder  what  would  be  seen  beyond 
them  on  the  other  side,  those  were  pleasures  that  kept 
one's  hopes  alive  through  long  periods  of  dull  inaction. 
The  aching  disappointment  of  turning  back  and  leaving 
the  mountains  as  remote  and  as  mysterious  as  they 
were  before  words  of  mine  cannot  express  ;  but  happily 
there  is  always  comfort  to  be  found  in  the  reflexion 
that 

"  Some  falls  are  means  the  happier  to  arise." 


APPENDIX   A 

NOTES    ON  THE   BIRDS   COLLECTED,  BY  THE    B.O.U. 
EXPEDITION  TO   DUTCH    NEW   GUINEA 

By  W.  R.  OGILVIE-GRANT 

Our  knowledge  of  the  Birds  of  New  Guinea  is  based 
mainly  on  Count  T.  Salvadori's  monumental  work  Oyni- 
tologia  delta  Papuasia  e  delle  Molluche,  which  appeared 
in  three  large  volumes  in  1880-82,  and  on  his  Aggiiuiie 
to  the  above  work  published  in  three  parts  in  1887-89. 
Since  that  date  our  knowledge  of  the  avi-fauna  has 
vastly  increased  and  a  very  large  number  of  splendid 
Birds-of-Paradise  and  other  remarkable  new  species  have 
been  discovered. 

A  list  of  the  principal  works  subsequently  published, 
placed  in  chronological  order,  will  be  found  at  the  end  of 
this  chapter,  the  most  important  papers  being  no  doubt 
those  by  the  Hon.  Walter  Rothschild  and  Dr.  E.  Hartert, 
which  have  appeared  from  time  to  time  in  the  Tring 
Museum  periodical  NovUates  ZoologiccB.  Mr.  Roth- 
schild is  to  be  congratulated  on  the  success  which  has 
attended  the  efforts  of  his  various  collectors  in  New 
Guinea  and  on  the  energy  which  he  has  displayed  in 
obtaining  birds  from  unknown  districts  of  the  most 
interesting  island  in  the  world. 

To  give  in  a  single  chapter  a  brief  and  partly  scien- 
tific, partly  popular,  summary  of  the  ornithological  work 
accomplished  by  our  Expedition  in  Dutch  New  Guinea  is 
a  more  difficult  task  than  might  be  imagined,  for  there 
is  not  only  an  immense  number  of  species  to  be  dealt 


264  PYGMIES  AND   PAPUANS 

with,  but  in  most  instances  very  little  is  known  about 
their  habits.  The  jungles  of  South-western  New  Guinea 
are  so  dense  that  white  men  can  scarcely  traverse  them, 
and  most  of  the  collecting  had  to  be  done  by  the  trained 
natives  from  the  Malay  Peninsula,  kindly  supplied  by 
Mr.  H.  C.  Robinson,  and  by  the  Gurkhas  who  accom- 
panied the  Expedition. 

By  dealing  with  each  family  in  turn,  I  shall  endeavour 
to  refer  to  all  the  more  important  species  in  the  collec- 
tion in  their  proper  scientific  order,  briefly  describing 
some  of  the  more  beautiful,  so  that  those  without  any 
special  knowledge  of  birds  may,  if  they  care  to  do  so, 
form  some  idea  of  the  marvellous  types  which  have 
been  brought  home  from  the  interior  of  South-western 
New  Guinea. 

It  is  certain  that  the  resources  of  that  wonderful 
island  are  not  nearly  exhausted  :  on  the  contrary,  every 
fresh  collecting  expedition  sent  to  the  interior  produces 
remarkable  novelties,  and  large  chains  of  high  mountains 
are  still  unexplored.  The  members  of  our  Expedition 
were  fortunate  in  procuring  no  less  than  2,200  skins  of 
birds  in  New  Guinea,  representing  about  235  species,  of 
which  ten  proved  to  be  new  to  Science.  A  number 
of  new  birds  were  also  obtained  by  the  late  Mr.  Wilfred 
Stalker  in  the  mountains  of  Ceram,  which  he  visited 
before  joining  the  main  Expedition  at  Amboina.  His 
premature  death  by  drowning,  a  few  days  after  he  landed 
in  New  Guinea,  was  an  immense  loss  to  the  Expedition, 
though  his  place  was  ably  filled  by  Mr.  Claude  Grant, 
who  worked  with  his  characteristic  zeal  and  enthusiasm. 

It  will  be  noticed  that  the  great  bulk  of  the  birds 
inhabiting  New  Guinea  belong  to  a  comparatively  small 
number  of  families,  but  that  each  of  these  is  represented 
by  a  large  number  of  different  species,  especially  in  such 
groups  as  the  Pigeons,  Parrots,  Flycatchers,  and  Honey- 
eaters. 


APPENDIX  A  265 

Amongst  the  Pigeons  of  which  no  fewer  than  twenty- 
seven  different  kinds  were  obtained,  it  would  seem  as 
though,  in  some  instances  at  least.  Nature  had  almost 
come  to  the  end  of  her  resources  in  devising  new  and 
wonderful  arrangements  of  colour  and  markings  ;  for  in 
some  of  the  smaller  Fruit-Pigeons,  such  as  PHlopus 
gestroi  and  P.  zonunts  we  find  two  perfectly  distinct 
species,  occurring  side  by  side,  possessing  almost  exactly 
the  same  remarkable  scheme  of  colouration,  and  only 
differing  in  certain  minor  points  to  be  found  in  the 
markings  of  the  wing-coverts.  Another  very  similar 
instance  is  to  be  seen  in  PHlopus  coronulatiis  and  P.  nanus 
almost  the  same  colours  and  pattern  being  repeated  in 
both. 

The  collection  obtained  by  our  expedition  is  a  very 
valuable  one,  and  has  added  many  new  and  interesting 
forms  of  bird-life  to  the  incomparable  series  in  the 
Natural  History  Museum,  to  which  the  bulk  of  the 
specimens  have  been  presented  by  the  subscribers.  A 
large  proportion  of  the  birds  were  obtained  at  low  eleva- 
tions from  sea-level  to  2,000  feet,  only  a  comparatively 
small  number  being  procured  at  from  3000-4000  feet. 
It  is  to  be  regretted  that  the  immense  physical  difficul- 
ties encountered  and  other  causes  prevented  our  col- 
lectors from  reaching  a  higher  zone  between  5000  and 
10,000  feet,  where  no  doubt  much  of  interest  remains  to 
be  discovered  by  those  who  are  fortunate  enough  to  get 
there. 


266 


PYGMIES  AND   PAPUANS 


TABLE    SHOWING   THE    NUMBER   OF   SPECIES    COLLECTED 
AND   THE    FAMILIES   TO    WHICH   THEY    BELONG 


Family. 

CorvidcB  Crows  ........ 

Paradiseidcs  Birds-of-Paradise,  Bower-Birds  and  Manucodes 

EulabetidcB  Tree-Starlings 

Dicntridcs  Drongos 

OriolidcB  Orioles 

PloceidcB  Weaver-Finches 

MotacilUda;  Wagtails 

Meliphagidis  Honey-caters 

Nectariniidcs  Sun-birds 

Dic(xidce  Flowcr-pcckcrs 

Zosteyopides  White-eyes    . 

LaniidcB  Shrikes 

Prionopidcs  Wood-Shrikes 

ArtcrmidcB  Swallow-Shrikes 

Tinieliidcs  Babblers 

Campophagidcs  Cuckoo-Shrikes 

Muscicapid(B  Flycatchers   . 

Hinindijiidce  Swallows 

PittidiB  Pittas  or  Ant-Thrushes 

CiicuUdcB  Cuckoos 

Cypselidcs  Swifts  . 

CaprimulgidcB  Nightjars 

Podargidcs  Frog-mouths 

BticerotidcB  Hornbills 

Meropidcs  Bee-eaters     . 

CoraciidcB  Rollers  . 

Alcedinidcs  Kingfishers    , 

PsittacidcB  Parrots 

LoriidcB  Lories  or  Brush-tongued  Parrots  j 

Bitbonidcs  Horned  and  Wood-Owls 

Falconidcs  Eagles  and  Hawks 

PJialacrocoracidcs    Cormorants  . 

AvatidcB  Ducks  . 

IbididcB  Ibises   . 

Ardeidce  Herons 

CUdicnemidcB  Stone-Plovers 

CharadriidcB  Plovers 

Laridcp.  Gulls  and  Terns 

Rallidcs  Rails    . 

Coliimbidce  Pigeons 

Megapodiidcv  Megapodes  or  Mound-builders 

Casuariida  Cassowaries  .... 


No.  of 
pecies. 
2 
13 

4 


Total 


^35 


From  the  above  table  it  will  be  seen  that  out  of  235  species  procured,  150  are 
included  in  eight  of  the  Families  ;  viz.  Birds-of-Paradise  13  ;  Honey-eaters  26  ; 
Cuckoo-Shrikes  11;  Flycatchers  30;  Cuckoos,  11  ;  Kingfishers  11  ;  Parrots,  22  ; 
Pigeons,  26. 


APPENDIX  A  267 

FAM I LY    COR VID.E — CROWS. 

Though  the  true  Crows  are  never  brightly  coloured 
birds,  manj/  are  extremely  handsome,  but  this  epithet 
cannot  be  applied  to  the  Bare-faced  Crow  (Gymnocorax  ' 
senex)    which   is    common   on    the    Mimika    River    and 
distributed  over  New  Guinea  generally. 

The  adult  is  brownish-black  with  a  slight  purplish 
or  bluish  gloss  on  the  wings,  but  is  generally  in  worn 
and  shabby  plumage.  Even  when  freshly  moulted  it 
is  rather  a  disreputable  looking  bird,  its  naked  pink 
face,  pale  watery  blue  eyes,  slate-coloured  bill  and  livid 
feet  adding  to  its  dissipated  appearance.  Young  birds 
in  their  first  year's  plumage  are  even  plainer  than  their 
parents,  being  dull  drab -brown  inclining  to  brownish- 
white  on  the  head  and  neck,  and  appear  to  be  clad 
in  sackcloth  and  ashes.  They  have  a  weak  uncrow-like 
call  pitched  in  a  high  key  and  their  flight  is  feeble  and 
seldom  sustained. 

In  addition  to  this  Crow  of  unprepossessing  appear- 
ance, there  is  a  handsome  Raven  (Corvus  orru),  much 
Hke  our  familiar  bird  but  smaller,  which  was  met  with 
in  pairs  on  the  coast. 

FAMILY   PARADISEIDJL — BIRDS-OF-PARADISE   AND 
BOWER-BIRDS. 

Closely  allied  to  the  well-known  Greater  Bird-of- 
Paradise  [Paradisea  apoda)  from  the  Aru  Islands  is  the 
New  Guinea  form  P.  novce-guinece,  the  males  being 
distinguished  by  their  smaller  size  and  by  having  the 
long  ornamental  side-plumes  of  a  much  richer  orange- 
yellow.  Though  the  call  of  this  bird  was  frequently 
heard  on  the  upper  parts  of  the  Mimika,  it  was  rarely 
seen ;  but  on  the  Wataikwa  quite  a  number  were 
procured  in  all  stages  of  plumage.  The  species  was, 
however,  nowhere  plentiful  and  confined  to  the  foot-hills. 


268  PYGMIES  AND   PAPUANS 

The  Pygmies  often  brought  plumes  of  the  Lesser 
Bird-of-Paradise  (P.  minor)  to  Parimau  and  traded 
them  with  the  natives,  but  the  species  was  not  found 
on  the  Mimika,  the  Charles  Louis  mountains  probably 
forming  its  southern  boundary. 

My  account  of  the  display  of  that  species,  as  witnessed 
in  the  Zoological  Gardens,  Regent's  Park,  will  be  found 
in  the  Ihis,  1905,  p.  429,  accompanied  by  various 
drawings  and  a  coloured  plate  by  Mr.  G.  E.  Lodge.  The 
display  resembles  that  of  the  Greater  Bird-of-Paradise 
(P.  apoda)  and  the  Red  Bird-of-Paradise  (P.  raggiana) 
and  no  doubt  also  that  of  P.  novcB-gtUnece.  It  is  a 
wonderful  and  beautiful  sight  to  see  these  birds  erect 
their  splendid  side-plumes  in  an  arch  over  the  back, 
which  is  concealed  in  a  shivering  cascade  of  colour, 
orange  and  white,  or  red  according  to  the  species. 

Numbers  of  the  beautiful  little  King  Bird-of-Paradise 
-/  (Cicinmtriis  regins)  were  brought  home  in  all  stages  of 
plumage  from  the  young  to  the  fully  adult  male,  with 
its  scarlet  head,  shading  into  glittering  carmine  on  the 
back  and  wings  and  into  purplish-carmine  on  the  throat, 
which  is  bordered  below  by  a  rich  dark  green  band. 
The  sides  of  the  chest  are  ornamented  with  fan-like 
arrangements  of  grey  feathers  tipped  with  ghttering 
golden  green  ;  the  breast  and  the  rest  of  the  under-parts 
are  of  the  purest  white :  the  outer  tail-feathers  are 
earthy-brown  edged  with  orange-red,  while  the  middle 
pair,  which  cross  one  another,  have  the  bare  shafts 
enormously  lengthened,  and  terminate  in  a  tightly 
curled  disc,  golden  green  above  and  reddish-brown 
beneath. 

These  beautiful  ornaments  are  seen  to  the  greatest 
advantage  when  the  King  is  displaying,  the  green- 
tipped  fan-like  feathers  on  the  sides  and  the  white 
feathers  of  the  breast  being  spread  out  to  form  a 
circular  shield  in  front   of   the  bird,    while    the   green 


APPENDIX   A  269 

metallic  discs  of  the  long  middle  tail-feathers  arc 
erected  and  waved  overhead.  An  interesting  description 
of  the  display  of  this  species  is  given  by  Sir  William 
Ingram  in  the  Ihis,  1907,  p.  225,  with  a  coloured 
plate  and  figures  drawn  by  Mr.  G.  E.  Lodge  from  a 
living  specimen. 

Mr.  Walter  Goodfellow  made  an  interesting  observa- 
tion on  the  habits  of  this  species.  While  watching  some 
Pigeons  on  the  opposite  bank  of  the  river  through  his 
glasses  he  saw  a  small  bird  rise  from  the  top  of  a  tree 
and  soar  into  the  air  like  a  Sky-Lark.  After  it  had 
risen  about  30  feet,  it  suddenly  seemed  to  collapse  and 
dropped  back  into  the  tree  as  though  it  had  been  shot. 
It  proved  to  be  a  King  Bird-of-Paradise  and  probably 
this  soaring  habit  is  a  part  of  the  display  not  indulged 
in  by  captive  birds  confined  in  comparatively  small 
cages. 

A  Rifle-Bird  (Ptilorhis  magnifica)  was  fairly  common 
both  on  the  coast  and  near  the  mountains  and  its  call 
consisting  of  two  long-drawn  notes,  one  ascending,  the 
other  descending,  might  be  heard  at  all  hours  of  the  day. 
Its  plumage  is  mostly  velvety  black  on  the  head  and 
upper -parts,  but  the  crown,  middle  of  the  throat  and 
chest,  as  well  as  the  middle  pair  of  tail-feathers,  are 
metallic  blue  and  a  bronze-green  band  separates  the 
chest  from  the  deep  purplish-maroon  under-parts.  The 
outer  flight  feathers  are  curiously  pointed  and  strongly 
falcate  and  some  of  the  side-feathers  terminate  in  long, 
narrow  decomposed  plumes.  The  long  curved  bill  and 
the  legs  are  black,  while  the  inside  of  the  mouth  is  pale 
apple-green  as  is  the  case  in  several  other  species  of 
Paradise-Birds. 

Though  a  well-known  species,  we  must  not  omit  to 
mention  the  splendid  Twelve-wired  Bird-of-Paradise 
(Seleiicides  niger).  The  plumage  of  the  male  is  like  dark 
brown   plush  shot  with  bronze-green  on  the   back  and 


270  PYGMIES  AND   PAPUANS 

deep  violet  on  the  wings,  while  the  long  dark  breast- 
feathers  are  edged  with  rich  metallic  emerald-green. 
The  long  ornamental  side-plumes  and  the  rest  of  the 
under-parts  are  beautiful  bright  cinnamon-yellow  when 
freshly  moulted,  but  this  colour  is  so  volatile  that  it  soon 
fades  to  nearly  white  in  skins  which  have  been  kept  for 
a  few  3'ears.  The  shafts  of  six  of  the  long  side-plumes 
on  either  side  extend  far  beyond  the  vane  of  the  feather 
and  look  like  twelve  recurved  wires,  hence  the  bird's 
popular  name.  The  eye  is  crimson,  the  bill  black,  the 
gape  bright  apple-green,  and  the  legs  and  toes  yellowish 
flesh-colour. 

The  Expedition  procured  three  examples  of  a  new 
form  of  Parotia  or  Six-plumed  Paradise- Bird  on  the 
Iwaka  River,  but  unfortunately  did  not  succeed  in  shoot- 
ing a  fully  adult  male.  Simultaneously  A.  S.  Meek,  who 
was  collecting  for  Mr.  Rothschild,  procured  specimens  of 
the  same  bird  on  the  Oetakwa  River  a  few  miles  to  the 
east,  but  he  likewise  did  not  secure  the  fully  adult  male. 
The  species  has  been  named  Parotia  carolce  meeki  by 
Mr.  Rothschild. 

The  plumage  of  this  bird  is  like  brownish-black  plush 
and  equally  soft  to  the  touch.  The  head  is  ornamented 
very  wonderfully;  on  either  side  behind  the  eye  there 
are  three  long  racket-like  plumes  on  long  bare  shafts,  (a 
character  common  to  all  the  members  of  this  remarkable 
genus  of  Paradise-Birds)  :  the  middle  of  the  crown  is  of 
a  beautiful  "old"  gold  colour  in  a  setting  of  silvery 
white  and  golden  brown:  on  the  occiput  there  is  a 
marvellous  patch  of  stiff  metal-like  feathers,  golden- 
green  bordered  with  deep  violet ;  the  sides  of  the  head 
before  and  behind  the  e\-e  are  golden-brown,  the  chin 
and  upper  part  of  the  throat  deep  brown,  and  the  lower 
part  whitish,  spotted  with  rufous.  A  lovely  metallic 
breast-plate  of  bronze-green  and  violet  feathers  with  dark 
middles  covers  the  chest  and  the  long  flank-feathers  are 


APPENDIX  A  271 

white.  The  two  outer  flight  feathers  are  curiously 
attenuated  near  the  extremity  and  terminate  in  a  sharp 
point,  the  shaft  bearing  only  a  very  narrow  web.  No 
doubt  all  these  ornaments  are  displayed  in  a  similar 
manner  to  those  of  P.  lawcsi  from  British  New  Guinea, 
males  of  which  have  been  living  for  some  years  in  the 
Zoological  Gardens,  Regent's  Park. 

Another  very  handsome  species  is  the  Golden-winged 
Diphyllodes  chrysopteya.  The  male  has  the  bill  and  a 
bare  space  behind  the  eye  bluish-white,  the  inside  of  the 
mouth  apple -green  and  the  feet  Prussian  blue.  The 
head  is  clad  in  short  velvety  reddish-brown  feathers  with 
two  metallic  green  spots  between  the  eyes ;  the  nape 
bears  a  frill  of  lengthened  brown-tipped  plumes;  the 
mantle  is  hght  golden-yellow  hke  spun  glass  and  forms 
a  lengthened  tippet ;  the  inner  secondary  quills  and 
shoulder-feathers  are  orange-yellow,  and  the  back 
carmine  and  dull  orange  shading  into  sooty  black  on  the 
upper  tail- coverts.  The  throat  is  deep  velvety  brown, 
the  neck  and  breast  rich  dark  green  bordered  below 
with  metallic  bluish-green,  and  with  a  row  of  metallic 
green  bars  like  steps  down  the  middle  of  the  neck  and 
chest ;  the  rest  of  the  under-parts  are  black.  The  short 
outer  tail-feathers  are  sooty  brown,  while  the  middle  pair 
which  cross  one  another  are  very  long  and  narrow  and 
of  a  metahic  bluish-green.  The  female  is  very  soberly 
clad,  dull  brown  above  and  narrowly  barred  with  brown 
and  buff  below. 

The  Bower-Birds  have  received  their  name  from  their 
peculiar  habit  of  constructing  bowers  or  runs  where  the 
males  meet  to  play  or  pay  their  court  to  the  females. 
The  bowers  are  built  long  before  the  birds  begin  to  build 
their  nests  which  are  placed  in  trees. 

One  of  the  most  noteworthy  species  procured  by  the 
Expedition  was  the  gorgeously  coloured  Bower-Bird, 
Xanthomelus  ardens.     The  male  has  the  eye  yellow  and 


272  PYGMIES   AND   PAPUANS 

the  head,  sides  of  the  neck  and  mantle  orange-scarlet, 
the  feathers  of  the  latter  being  very  long  and  loose  and 
forming  a  dense  cape ;  the  rest  of  the  plumage  is  orange- 
3'ellow  above  and  golden-yellow  below :  the  ends  of  the 
quills  and  the  tail-feathers,  being  black. 

The  female  has  the  iris  brown  and  is  more  sombrely 
clad,  the  head  and  upper-parts,  including  the  wings  and 
tail,  being  earthy-brown,  while  the  under-parts,  under 
wing-coverts  and  wing-lining,  are  yellow,  like  those  of 
the  male,  but  less  bright. 

This  beautiful  species  was  originally  described  from 
an  imperfect  native-made  skin  obtained  by  the  Itahan 
naturalist,  D'Albertis,  on  the  Fly  River.  Subsequently, 
Dr.  H.  A.  Lorentz  shot  two  adult  males  on  the  Noord 
River,  which  were  described  and  figured  by  Dr.  Van  Oort. 
Our  expedition  was  fortunate  enough  to  secure  not  only 
adult  males,  but  also  the  immature  male  and  adult  female, 
these  latter  being  hitherto  unknown. 

The  display  of  the  male  bird  must  be  a  very  beautiful 
sight,  his  scarlet  cape  being  no  doubt  erected,  and  form- 
ing a  great  hood  over  the  head. 

Among  the  Bower-Birds,  one  of  the  most  interesting 
was  a  remarkable  female  example  of  a  species  of  Chlamy- 
dodera  procured  on  the  Kamura  River.  Unlike  any  of 
the  allied  forms,  it  has  the  under-surface  washed  with 
yellow,  and  appears  to  be  the  female  of  C.  laiitevhachi, 
of  which  the  brilliantly  coloured  male  was  described  by 
Dr.  Reichenow  from  an  example  procured  in  German 
New  Guinea. 

The  male  has  the  crown  and  sides  of  the  face  golden- 
orange,  the  upper-parts  olive-brown,  edged  with  yellowish, 
and  the  under-parts  bright  ^tIIow.  It  is  a  very  striking 
bird  and  much  the  most  brightly  coloured  member  of  the 
genus. 

Though  the  two  specimens  were  obtained  in  localities 
so  far  apart,  there  seems  to  be  no  reason  why  they  should 


APPENDIX  A 


273 


not  be  male  and  female  of  the  same  species.  The  female 
obtained  by  the  Expedition  possesses  many  characteristics 
in  common  with  the  male  type  of  C.  lauterhachi  and  the 
differences  in  plumage  are  just  what  one  would  expect 
to  find  in  the  female  of  that  species. 

The  beautiful  Cat-bird  [Mhirc^dus  stonei)  was  fairly 
plentiful,  and  is  remarkable  on  account  of  its  peculiar 
colouring.  The  cap  is  brown,  the  back  grass-green,  and 
the  neck  and  under-parts  buff,  spotted  with  black,  or 
green  on  the  longer  flank-feathers.  The  eye  is  hazel 
and  the  bill  and  legs  slate-blue.  The  sexes  are  alike  in 
plumage.  It  derives  its  popular  name  from  its  peculiar 
hissing  alarm  note,  not  unlike  the  sound  made  by  an 
angry  cat. 

Of  the  Manucodes,  four  different  kinds  were  met 
with.  They  are  all  crow-like  birds  with  brilliant  metallic 
black  plumage  glossed  with  purple,  green  or  blue,  and 
form  a  hnk  between  the  Paradise-Birds  and  the  true 
Crows.  The  Purple-and- Violet  Manucode  (Phonygama 
jamesi)  is  distinguished  by  possessing  tufts  of  long, 
narrow  metallic  green  plumes  behind  the  eye,  and  by 
having  the  neck-feathers  similarly  lengthened ;  while  the 
other  three  belonging  to  the  genus  Mamicodia  have  the 
head  and  neck  covered  with  short  curly  feathers.  These 
curly-headed  species  are  much  alike  in  general  appear- 
ance, but  M.  orientalis  has  the  short  curly  feathers  on 
the  chest  and  breast  glittering  golden-green,  while  in 
M.  jobiensis  and  M.  altera  the  same  parts  are  dark  steel- 
blue.  Inter  se  the  two  latter  kinds  differ  considerably, 
both  structurally  and  in  colour.  M.  jobiensis  is 
smaller  and  has  the  feathers  of  the  throat  rounded  and 
crinkled,  and  the  upper-parts  glossed  with  a  strong  shade 
of  violet ;  while  M.  altera  is  larger  and  has  the  throat- 
feathers  short  but  rather  pointed,  and  the  general  colour 
above  purplish-blue  or  steel-blue. 

In  most  of  the  Manucodes  the  trachea  is  very  long 

T 


^ 


274  PYGMIES  AND   PAPUANS 

and  convoluted,  that  of  the  Purple-and- Violet  species 
possessing  no  fewer  than  twelve  coils  which  lie  between 
the  skin  and  the  pectoral  muscles.  In  spite  of  this 
marvellous  instrument  its  cries  are  not  nearly  so  loud 
as  those  of  the  Birds-of-Paradise  of  the  genus  Paradisea. 
Mr.  Claude  Grant  discovered  a  nest  of  M.  altera  with 
two  eggs  at  Parimau,  an  interesting  find,  as  no  properly 
authenticated  eggs  of  that  species  had  hitherto  been 
obtained. 

FAMILY   EULABETID^ — TREE-STARLINGS. 

Among  the  smaller  Glossy  Starlings  we  must  specially 
mention  a  new  species,  Calornis  mystacea,  discovered  by  the 
Expedition.  It  has  the  plumage  purplish-bronze  and  is 
especially  remarkable  in  having  long  semi-erect  plumes 
on  the  forehead  as  well  as  long  neck- hackles. ^  Three 
specimens  were  obtained  flying  in  company  with  large 
flocks  of  C.  metallica,  a  rather  widely  distributed  species, 
which  ranges  to  North  Australia,  the  Moluccas  and  the 
Solomon  Islands. 

The  Grackles  or  Talking  Starlings  are  represented  by 
two  lovely  species,  the  first  being  the  well-known 
Dumont's  Grackle  {Mino  dumonti)  a  dark  glossy  greenish- 
black  bird  with  a  yellow  belly  and  white  under  tail-coverts, 
It  has  a  brown  eye  surrounded  by  a  large  naked  orange 
patch  partially  covered  with  short  stiff  filaments.  The 
second  species  Robertson's  Golden  Grackle  (Melanopyrrhus 
robertsoni)  is  an  equally  handsome,  but  much  rarer  bird, 
and  the  fine  series  of  adults  obtained  by  the  Expedition 
proves  that  it  is  a  species  quite  distinct  from  M.  orientalis, 
the  form  found  in  British  New  Guinea  which  has  a  large 
black  patch  on  the  occiput. 

Robertson's  Grackle  has  the  cheeks  and  upper  part  of 
the  throat,  as  well  as  the  back,  wings  and  breast,  black 
glossed  with  green ;  the  rest  of  the  head,  neck  and  chest. 


APPENDIX  A  275 

as  well  as  the  lower  back,  rump,  upper  tail-coverts  and 
belly,  are  orange-yellow.  In  the  adult  there  is  no  trace 
of  a  black  patch  on  the  occiput,  but  the  quite  young 
bird  has  the  entire  crown  black  and  specimens  which 
have  not  assumed  the  fully  adult  plumage  and  still 
retain  some  black  feathers  on  the  occiput  might  be 
mistaken  for  M.  orientalis.  That  they  have  been  is 
proved  by  the  fact  that  Count  Salv^adori  and  many  others 
have  regarded  M.  rohertsoni,  Sharpe,  as  a  synonym  of 
M.  orientalis,  Schlegel,  but  they  are  really  quite  distinct. 
A  few  very  high  trees  left  standing  near  the  huts  at 
Wakatimi  were  the  resort,  morning  and  evening,  of  these 
Starlings  and  various  other  species  of  birds.  For  a  long 
time  during  the  hot  mid-day  hours  Mr.  Goodfellow  had 
observed  that  some  bird,  possessing  a  remarkably  sweet 
Thrush-like  song,  rested  there,  and,  after  many  days  of 
watching,  he  found  it  to  be  Robertson's  Golden  Crackle. 
He  says  that  the  notes  of  this  Starling  would  not  pass 
unnoticed,  even  in  countries  where  the  birds,  as  a  rule, 
have  sweeter  voices  than  those  inhabiting  New  Guinea. 


FAMILY   DICRURIDA: — DRONGOS. 

The  Drongos,  small  Crow-like  Flycatchers  with 
pugnacious  habits,  are  represented  in  the  collection 
b}^  two  species. — Chihia  carhonaria  and  Chcetorhynchits 
papiiensis. 


FAMILY    ORIOLID.'E — ORIOLES. 

The  Orioles  are  represented  by  one  species  onl}-, 
Mimeta  striata,  belonging  to  the  dull  coloured  brown- 
backed  group  with  heavily  streaked  under-parts  and  the 
sexes  alike  in  plumage.  It  was  commonest  in  the 
mangrove  swamps  near  the  coast. 


276  PYGMIES  AND   PAPUANS 

FAMILY    PLOCEW.E— WEAVER-BIRDS. 

This  widely  distributed  group  of  Weaver-Finches  is 
not  very  numerous  in  New  Guinea  and  the  only  repre- 
sentative met  with  was  a  small  species,  Mimia  tristissima, 
which  was  common  in  the  clearing  round  the  camp  at 
Wakatimi. 

FAMILY   MOTA CJLLW.-E — WAGTAILS. 

The  Grey  Wagtail  [Motacilla  mclanope)  and  the  Blue- 
headed  Wagtail  (M.  flava)  were  both  met  with  on  the 
Mimika  and  other  rivers.  It  is  interesting  to  note  that 
both  species  are  included  in  the  British  List,  the  former 
being  a  regular  breeding-species  in  our  islands.  The 
birds  wintering  in  far-off  New  Guinea,  no  doubt  formed 
part  of  the  eastern  colonies  of  these  species  which  nest  in 
Siberia  and  visit  the  Indo-Malayan  Islands  in  winter. 

FAM I LY   MELIPHA GID.E—W O NEY-EATERS. 

The  Honey-eaters  are  very  numerously  represented 
in  South-western  New  Guinea  and  no  fewer  than  twenty- 
seven  species  were  met  with  by  our  Expedition. 

The  family  is  divided  in  two  sections,  the  first 
including  the  comparatively  brightly  coloured  genus 
Myzomcla  the  members  of  which  resemble  true  Sun-birds 
(N ectariniidce)  in  general  appearance.  Seven  species  were 
met  with;  the  most  brilliantly  coloured  being  M. 
cnientata  which  has  the  plumage  of  the  body  scarlet  and 
the  wings  washed  with  the  same  colour,  another  species 
M.  obscura  has  the  entire  plumage  smoky-grey,  and  four 
forms  are  intermediate  between  these  two  types  of 
colouration,  being  partly  scarlet  and  partly  grey.  The 
seventh  is  a  very  small  and  very  rare  species  ((Edistoma 
pyg7ncBum),  which  was  described  by  Count  Salvadori 
from  the  Arfak  Peninsula. 


APPENDIX   A  277 

The  other  section  contains  a  number  of  larger  species, 
mostly  with  dull  gresnish  or  brownish  plumage  and 
nearly  all  with  a  3'ellow  tuft  or  patch  on  the  ear-coverts. 
Though  rather  uninteresting-looking  birds  several  are 
really  of  great  scientific  value,  being  new  to  the  National 
Collection,  and  one,  Ptilotis  mimikce  proved  to  be  new  to 
Science.  The  largest  form  is  the  curious  Friar-bird 
(Philemon  novcB-guinecB)  with  the  bare  sides  of  the  face 
and  neck  black  and  a  swollen  knob  on  the  base  of  the 
bill.  It  was  generally  met  with  in  pairs  and  inhabited 
the  tops  of  the  tallest  forest  trees  whence  its  pecuHar  cry 
might  constantly  be  heard. 


FAMILY   NECTARINIID.E — SUN-BIRDS. 

The  Sun-birds  are  represented  by  two  species  Ciniiyns 
aspasicB  and  C.  fvenata.  The  male  of  the  former  is 
deep  black  with  a  dark  metallic  green  cap,  shoulders  and 
lower  back,  and  purple  throat,  while  the  female  is  olive 
above,  and  dull  yellow  below,  with  a  grey  head  and 
throat.  The  latter  species  is  dull  yellow  above,  brilliant 
3^ellow  below,  with  a  purple  throat  in  the  male,  which  is 
absent  in  the  female. 

Mr.  Goodfellow  tells  us  that  among  the  riot  of  para- 
sitic plants  which  covered  the  trees  a  few  Sun-birds  and 
Honey-eaters  might  always  be  seen.  The  nests  of  the 
former,  suspended  from  fallen  and  partially  submerged 
dead  trees,  were  continuously  swinging  from  side  to  side, 
the  strong  current  in  the  river  keeping  the  trees  in  per- 
petual motion.  These  nests  might  easily  be  mistaken 
for  a  handful  of  drift  left  there  by  the  river. 

FAMILY   DICjEID.^ — FLOWER-PECKERS. 

DiccBiim  diver  sum  and  Melanocharis  chloroptera,  a 
dull-looking   greenish-grey   species   described   by   Count 


278  PYGMIES  AND   PAPUANS 

Salvador!,  were  the  only  Flower-peckers  met  with.  They 
are  small  Tit-like  birds  allied  to  the  Sun-birds,  but  with 
a  short  bill  serrated  along  the  edges  of  the  mandibles. 
Both  species  were  very  common  everywhere  except  on 
the  coast  and  were  extremely  tame. 

FAMILY   ZOSTEROPID.E — WHITE-EYES. 

Zostcrops  chrysolcBma,  a  beautiful  little  species  with 
the  upper-parts  golden-olive,  the  throat  and  under  tail- 
coverts  yellow,  and  the  breast  and  belly  pure  white,  was 
the  only  species  met  with  of  this  most  numerous  and 
widely  distributed  group.  The  popular  name  White-eye 
is  derived  from  the  ring  of  tiny  white  plumes  which  en- 
circles the  eye  in  all.  They  resemble  Titmice  both  in 
their  mode  of  life  and  notes.  The  only  pair  observed 
WTre  met  with  on  the  Iwaka  River,  and  the  species  is 
probably  more  numerous  in  the  higher  parts  of  the 
mountains. 

FAMILY   LANIID.-E — SHRIKES. 

The  large  Shrike-Uke  birds  with  powerful  hooked  bills 
known  as  the  Piping-Crows  are  represented  by  two  mem- 
bers of  the  genus  Cr adieus ;  C.  cassicus,  a  black  and 
white  species,  and  C.  quoyi,  with  uniform  black  plumage. 
Both  are  much  like  their  well-known  Australian  repre- 
sentatives, but  smaller.  C.  cassicus  was  much  the 
commoner  bird  and  was  generally  observed  feeding  on 
berries  and  fruits  in  high  trees,  its  actions  being  very 
Crow-like. 

The  Pachycephaline  group  of  birds  allied  to  the  true 
Shrikes  is  represented  by  half-a-dozen  species,  two  of 
which  proved  to  be  undescribed:  a  grey  form  with  a 
white  throat  Pachycephala  approximans  and  a  black 
species  with  a  white  breast  and  belly,  P.  dorsalis. 
Brilliantly  coloured  orange -yellow  and  black,  or  orange- 


APPENDIX  A  279 

yellow  and  grey  species  were  represented  by  Pachycephala 
aiirea  and  Pachy chare  flavogrisea. 

FAM I L Y    rRIONOPID.E — WO 0 D -S H  R 1 K ES. 

This  group  is  represented  by  Rhectes  cristaius  and  R. 
ferrugineiis  in  which  both  sexes  are  rufous  and  by  R. 
nigripectiis  with  the  sexes  different,  the  male  being  partly 
black  and  partly  chestnut.  Pinarolestes  megarhynchus , 
an  aUied  species  with  the  sexes  alike,  is  brown  above  and 
dull  rufous  below.  Some  of  these  Wood-Shrikes  lay 
peculiar  looking  eggs  of  a  long  oval  shape  and  large  for 
the  size  of  the  bird.  The  ground-colour  is  purplish-  or 
pinkish-grey  with  scattered  spots  or  small  blotches  of 
dark  purplish-brown  or  maroon-brown,  often  blurred  at 
the  edges  and  running  into  the  ground-colour.  These 
eggs  have  on  several  occasions  been  palmed  off  on 
travellers  in  British  New  Guinea  as  eggs  of  the  Red 
Bird-of-Paradise,  which  they  do  not  in  any  way 
resemble. 

FAMILY  ARTAMID^ — SWALLOW-SHRIKES. 

These  birds  which  closely  resemble  Swallows  in  their 
mode  of  life  are  represented  by  one  species  only,  Artamus 
leucopygialis,  a  grey  bird  with  the  breast  and  rump  white. 
It  was  common  along  the  coast,  and  was  generally  seen 
either  perched  on  some  dead  tree  or  skimming  swiftly 
over  the  sands. 

FAMILY    r/iT/^Z//Z?yS— BABBLERS. 

We  now  come  to  the  Timeline  group  of  birds:  of 
these  we  may  mention  two  striking-looking  species  of 
Etipetes.  One,  E.  nigricnssiis ,  with  the  plumage  slate- 
blue  and  the  throat  white,  edged  with  black,  was  met 
with   on  the  Mimika;    the  other,  E.  pulcher,  was  only 


28o  PYGMIES  AND  PAPUANS 

seen  further  east  on  the  Wataikwa  River.  It  is  very 
similar  to  the  above,  but  has  the  crown  and  back  rich- 
chestnut,  instead  of  slate.  Both  species  are  ground-birds 
and  usually  found  in  pairs ;  they  are  rather  difficult  to 
procure  as,  when  disturbed,  they  instantly  conceal  them- 
selves among  the  trunks  of  the  trees  and  vegetation. 
The  Scimitar  Babblers  were  represented  by  the  reddish- 
brown  Pomatorhinus  isidori. 


FAMILY    CAMPOPHAGID.-E — CUCKOO-SHRIKES. 

The  Cuckoo-Shrikes  are  well  represented  in  the  collec- 
tion, no  fewer  than  eleven  species  having  been  obtained. 
They  belong  to  four  genera  and  vary  much  in  colour : 
the  large  Graucalus  cceruleogrisea  has  the  entire  plumage 
bluish-grey,  except  the  axillaries  and  under  wing-coverts 
which  are  pale  cinnamon  and  the  male  has  a  black  patch 
in  front  of  eye.  Another  genus  Edoliisoma  is  represented 
by  E.  melas  of  which  the  male  is  entirely  black,  and  the 
female  chestnut  and  brown.  A  very  attractive  and 
brilliantly  coloured  species  is  CampochcBva  sloetii,  forming 
a  marked  contrast  to  other  members  of  the  group.  The 
greater  part  of  its  plumage  is  orange-yellow,  the  forehead 
white,  the  middle  of  the  crown  yellow  and  the  wings  black 
and  white ;  the  male  has  the  cheeks,  throat  and  chest  black 
glossed  with  dull  green,  while  in  the  female  these  parts 
are  dull  grey.  Several  examples  of  this  very  rare  Cuckoo- 
Shrike  were  procured  on  the  Mimika  River.  It  is  no 
doubt  most  nearly  allied  to  the  Minivets  (Pericrocotus) 
which  inhabit  the  Indo-Chinese  countries  and  islands, 
the  predominant  colour  of  most  of  the  males  being  scarlet 
and  of  the  females  yellow. 

FAMILY   MUSCICAPIDJE — FLYCATCHERS. 

Flycatchers  are  very  numerously  represented  and 
among  them  two   new  forms  were   discovered,  a  Fan- 


APPENDIX  A  281 

tailed  Flycatcher  (Rhipidura  streptophora)  and  a  broad- 
billed  species  Myiagra  mimikcB.  Among  the  more  notable 
forms  we  may  mention  Monarcha  aruensis,  a  brilliant 
yellow  and  black  species ;  Todopsis  honapartei,  the  male 
being  vivid  ultramarine-blue,  purple  and  black,  while  the 
female  differs  in  having  the  back  and  sides  dark  chestnut 
and  the  breast  mostly  white ;  lastly  Peltops  hlainvillci,  a 
black  bird  with  the  rump,  vent  and  tail-coverts  scarlet,  a 
large  white  patch  on  each  side  of  the  head  and  another 
on  the  middle  of  the  mantle;  the  sexes  are  alike  in 
plumage. 

The  Fan-tailed  Flycatchers  were  commonly  seen  on 
the  Mimika  River  in  May  and  June  when  numbers  were 
busy  hawking  the  canary-coloured  May-flies  which 
swarmed  at  that  time. 

The  Black-and-white  Flycatcher  (M alums  alhoscapii- 
latus)  frequented  the  tall  grasses  near  the  camp  on  the 
Wataikwa  River.  It  was  a  delightful  Httle  bird,  very 
tame  and  might  constantly  be  seen  crossing  the  open 
spaces  with  an  undulating  flight. 

FAM I L Y   HIR UNDINID.-E — S WALL 0 WS . 

Two  species  of  Swallows  were  met  with  Hintndo 
javanica  and  H.  guUuralis. 

FAMILY   PITTID.'E — PITTAS    OR   ANT-THRUSHES. 

Of  the  Ant-Thrushes  or  Pittas  two  species  were  met 
with,  both  brilUantly  plumaged  birds.  Fitta  mackloti 
which  was  far  the  commoner  of  the  two,  has  a  dark 
crown,  reddish-chestnut  nape,  and  greenish-blue  upper- 
parts  ;  the  throat  is  black,  the  chest  shining  greyish-blue 
and  the  breast  and  belly  scarlet,  divided  from  the  chest 
by  a  wide  black  band. 

The  other  species,  Pitta  novce-giiinece,  which  ^^•as  much 


282  PYGMIES  AND  PAPUANS 

less  frequently  met  with,  has  the  head  and  neck  black 
and  the  rest  of  the  plumage  dark  green  washed  with 
bluish  on  the  breast,  which  is  black  down  the  middle. 
The  shoulders  are  shining  silvery-blue  and  the  vent  and 
under  tail-coverts  scarlet. 

These  long-legged  Thrush-like  birds  are  entirely 
terrestrial  in  their  habits  and  frequent  the  depths  of  the 
forests.  They  can  hop  with  great  agility  and  escape  on 
the  slightest  alarm,  but  are  easily  taken  in  snares. 


FAMILY   CUCULID^E — CUCKOOS. 

Among  the  Cuckoos,  the  largest  is  a  species  of 
"Crow-pheasant''  or  " Lark-heeled "  Cuckoo,  Centropus 
meneUki,  a  bird  of  black  plumage  glossed  with  dark  green, 
with  a  large  whitish-horn  bill  and  heavy  slate-coloured 
legs  and  toes. 

An  allied,  but  smaller  and  rarer  species,  C.  hemsteini, 
was  met  with  near  the  mouth  of  the  Mimika.  It  is  very 
similar  in  plumage  to  the  above,  but  is  easily  dis- 
tinguished by  its  smaller  size,  black  bill  and  long,  nearly 
straight  hind-claw.  Both  are  almost  entirely  ground- 
birds  of  skulking  habits.  Several  other  species  of 
Cuckoo  were  met  with,  and  among  these  Cticuhis  micro- 
pterus,  the  eastern  form  of  the  Common  Cuckoo,  closely 
resembling  our  familiar  bird.  The  rarest  species 
obtained  was  Microdynamis  parva,  a  remarkable  little 
Cuckoo  about  the  size  of  a  Thrush,  first  described  by 
Count  Salvadori  in  1875.  The  origin  of  the  type 
specimen  is  uncertain,  but  it  is  believed  to  have  been 
obtained  by  Beccari  in  the  Moluccas.  Subsequently,  Dr. 
H.  O.  Forbes  procured  female  examples  in  the  Astrolabe 
Mountains.  Mr.  Claude  Grant  obtained  an  adult  male 
and  female  which  form  a  valuable  addition  to  the 
National  Collection.  The  general  plumage  is  brown, 
but  in  the  male  the  top  of  the  head  and  the  malar 


APPENDIX  A  283 

stripe  are  black,  glossed  with  steel-blue  and  the  cheeks 
and  throat  are  cinnamon.  In  both  sexes  the  bill  is 
short,  thick  and  curved.  The  male  has  the  eye  bright 
red,  while  in  the  female  it  is  hazel. 


FAM I LY    C\ 'PSELID.E — SW^ FTS. 

The  Swifts,  though  of  especial  interest,  are  not  very 
numerously  represented  in  the  collection.  The  commonest 
species  was  that  known  as  the  Esculent  Swiftlet  {Collo- 
calia  fuciphaga)  which  produces  the  best  kind  of  edible 
nest. 

A  very  interesting  discovery  was  the  existence  in 
New  Guinea  of  the  large  fork-tailed  species  Collocalia 
whiteheadi  originally  described  by  myself  from  the  high- 
lands of  Luzon,  Philippine  Islands. 

A  remarkable  Spine-tailed  Swift  (Clicetura  novce- 
guinecB)  is  new  to  the  National  Collection.  It  was  fairly 
common  on  the  Mimika  River  and  originally  described 
by  Count  Salvadori  from  specimens  procured  by  D'Albertis 
on  the  Fly  River. 

A  pair  of  the  magnificent  Moustached  Swift  (Macro- 
pteryx  mystacea)  with  a  wing  expanse  of  more  than  two 
feet  were  also  procured.  The  plumage  of  this  bird  is 
mostly  grey,  but  the  crown,  wings,  and  long  deeply- 
forked  tail  are  black  glossed  with  purplish-blue.  The 
eye-brows  and  moustache-stripes  as  well  as  the  scapulars 
are  white,  the  two  former  being  composed  of  lengthened, 
narrow,  pointed  plumes.  The  male  has  a  small  chestnut 
spot  behind  the  ear-coverts  which  is  absent  in  the  female. 
The  nesting-habits  of  this  species  are  very  curious,  it 
makes  a  very  small  exposed  half-saucer-shaped  nest  of 
bark  and  feathers  gummed  by  saliva  to  a  branch  or 
stump  barely  large  enough  to  contain  the  single  white 
egg,  and  ridiculously  small  in  comparison  with  the  size 
of  the  bird.     When  incubating,  the  greater  part  of  the 


284  PYGMIES  AND   PAPUANS 

bird's  body  must  rest  on  the  branch  to  which  the  nest 
is  attached. 


FAMILIES    CAPRIMULGIDJ:  AND    P0Z>^7^C/Z),-E— NIGHTJARS 
AND    FROG-MOUTHS. 

The  common  Nightjar  of  the  country  found  along 
the  shingly  banks  of  the  rivers  was  Caprimulgus  macrurus, 
a  widely  distributed  species.  After  the  ground  had  been 
cleared  for  the  base  camp  at  Wakatimi  it  was  visited 
every  evening  by  a  number  of  Nightjars,  which  no  doubt 
found  such  a  large  open  space  an  admirable  hunting- 
ground  and  the  members  of  the  Expedition  derived  great 
pleasure  from  watching  their  graceful  evolutions.  Another 
very  rare  Nightjar  was  Lyncornis  papiiensis^  not  pre- 
viously included  in  the  National  Collection.  Frog- 
mouths  were  represented  by  the  larger  species  Podargus 
papuensis  and  the  smaller,  P.  ocellatus.  At  some  of  the 
stopping  places  on  the  river  night  was  made  hideous 
by  their  mournful  cries  repeated  to  distraction  on  every 
side,  and  ending  up  with  a  sharp  snap. 

A  single  example  of  the  rare  Wallace's  Owlet-Nightjar 
(Mgotheles  wallacei)  was  collected  by  Mr.  G.  C.  Shortridge 
on  the  Wataikwa  River.  It  has  a  peculiar  uniform 
blackish  upper  plumage,  without  any  trace  of  a  distinct 
nuchal  collar.  No  doubt,  like  its  Australian  ally,  it 
roosts  in  holes  in  trees  during  the  daytime  and  captures 
its  prey  on  the  wing  at  night,  like  the  true  Nightjars, 
though  the  flight  is  said  to  be  less  tortuous. 

FAMILY   BUCEROTID.E — HORNBILLS. 

The   only   representative   of   the   Biicerotidce   is   the 

^  Wreathed  Hornbill  (Rhyiidoceros  plicatus)    a   large  bird 

with  a  casque  formed  of  overlapping  plates  on  the  base 

of  the  upper  mandible.     The  male  is  black  with  the  head 

and  neck  chestnut  and  the  tail  white,  while  the  female 


APPENDIX  A  285 

differs  in  having  the  head  and  neck  black.  It  was  plentiful 
everywhere  and  its  flesh  was  reported  to  be  good  eating. 
It  frequented  the  fruit-bearing  trees  in  company  with 
various  species  of  Pigeons  and  Mr.  Claude  Grant  on  one 
or  two  occasions  observed  pairs  at  what  he  took  to  be 
their  nesting-holes  high  up  in  the  bare  trunks  of  very  tall 
trees.  Their  heavy  noisy  flight  and  raucous  call,  continu- 
ally repeated,  renders  these  birds  difficult  to  overlook. 

FAMILY   ^/^A'O/'/Z?.-/^— BEE-EATERS. 

A  species  of  Bee -eater,  Merops  ovnata,  was  common 
about  the  base  camp.  It  ranges  to  Austraha,  the 
Moluccas  and  westwards  to  the  Lesser  Sunda  group.  Mr. 
GoodfeHow  says  it  swarmed  in  some  places  after  the 
month  of  April ;  though  previous  to  that  date  none  had 
been  met  with. 

FAMILY    C0RAC1IDA-: — ROLLERS. 

Two  species  of  Rollers  inhabit  the  Mimika  district 
Eurystomus  crassirostris,  a  greenish-blue  species  with 
brilliant  ultramarine  throat,  quills  and  tail-feathers  and 
vermilion  bill  and  feet ;  and  a  smaller  species  E.  australis 
with  brownish-green  upper-parts,  verditer-blue  breast 
and  bluish-green  bases  to  the  tail-feathers. 

Both  Bee-eaters  and  Rollers  were  common  in  flocks 
along  the  banks  of  the  Mimika  during  April  and  May 
when  preying  on  the  canary-coloured  May-fly,  which 
swarmed  on  the  waters  at  that  season. 


FAMILY   ALCEDINID.E — KINGFISHERS. 

Kingfishers  were  well  represented  in  the  Mimika 
district  and  Mr.  GoodfeHow  says  that  the  Sacred  King- 
fisher  [Halcyon  sancHts)    was    undoubtedly    the    most 


286  PYGMIES  AND   PAPUANS 

conspicuous  bird  about  the  base  camp,  where  its  harsh 
cry  could  be  heard  all  through  the  hot  hours  of  the  day. 
The  huts  and  storehouses  were  infested  by  myriads  of 
black  crickets,  which  take  the  place  of  the  cockroaches 
found  in  other  countries  and  commit  fearful  havoc 
among  stores  and  personal  possessions.  The  constant 
packing  up  of  goods  to  send  up  river  drove  thousands  of 
these  insects  to  seek  shelter  in  other  parts  of  the  camp, 
and,  at  such  times.  Kingfishers  became  very  tame  and 
darted  in  and  out  among  the  buildings,  taking  advantage 
of  the  feast  thus  afforded.  Mr.  Claude  Grant  shot  a 
single  specimen  of  the  lovely  Kingfisher  H.  nigrocyanea 
the  only  one  obtained.  It  has  the  crown,  wings,  upper 
tail-coverts,  tail,  and  breast  dark  ultramarine  blue,  the 
rump  cobalt-blue,  the  throat  and  a  band  across  the 
breast  pure  white,  and  the  remainder  of  the  plumage 
black.  Another  species  met  with  at  the  base  camp  was 
H.  macleayi  with  purple  head,  wings  and  tail,  verditer- 
blue  back,  white  lores,  collar  and  under-parts,  and 
cinnamon  flanks.  Only  one  example  of  this  fine  bird  was 
procured.  Others  were  the  dark  purplish-blue  and 
chestnut  Alcyone  lessoni,  about  the  size  of  our  Common 
Kingfisher  and  the  much  smaller  A.  pusilla  similarly 
coloured  above,  but  with  the  under-parts  pure  white. 

Ceyx  solitaria,  a  closely  allied  species,  with  purple 
spangled  upper-parts  and  cinnamon-j^ellow  under-parts 
was  also  found  on  the  Mimika  and  Mr.  Goodfellow  was 
surprised  to  find  this  diminutive  species  which  he  had 
believed  to  be  exclusively  a  fish-eater,  greedily  devouring 
a  canary-coloured  May-fly  which  swarmed  on  the  waters 
of  the  Mimika  during  April  and  May. 

On  the  river  a  few  specimens  of  the  large  "  Jackass  " 
Kingfisher  (Dacelo  intermedia)  were  obtained,  but  the 
species  was  by  no  means  common.  The  most  conspicuous 
bird  was  Gaudichaud's  Kingfisher  (Sauromarptis  gaudi- 
chaudi)  and  its  loud  grating  call  might  be  heard  in  all 


APPENDIX  A  287 

directions.  The  adult  is  a  very  handsome  bird,  the  black 
of  the  upper-parts  being  relieved  by  the  electric-blue  tips 
to  the  wing-coverts  and  feathers  of  the  lower  back  and 
rump,  the  wings  and  tail  are  washed  with  dull  purplish- 
blue,  the  throat  is  white  and  extends  in  a  buff  collar 
round  the  neck,  the  under  wing-coverts  are  buff  and  the 
breast  and  rest  of  the  under-parts  deep  chestnut.  The 
natives  brought  numbers  of  the  half-fiedged  young  of 
this  species  to  the  base  camp  during  May  and  June  and 
many  were  purchased  by  the  Javanese  soldiers  and 
convicts ;  but  as  they  fed  them  on  boiled  rice  only,  their 
hves  were  brief.  The  great  Shoe-billed  Kingfisher 
(Clytoceyx)  was  not  met  with  by  the  members  of  our 
Expedition,  but  Dr.  Van  Oort  has  described  a  new  form 
which  he  calls  Clytoceyx  rex  imperator,  from  a  specimen 
procured  by  Dr.  Lorentz  on  the  Noord  River.  Another 
large  species,  Melidora  macrorhimis,  with  a  curious  brown 
spotted  plumage  above  w^as  not  uncommon ;  it  usually 
frequented  the  lower  branches  and  undergrowth  within  a 
few  feet  of  the  ground  and  when  disturbed  merely 
mounted  to  a  more  conspicuous  perch. 

The  lovely  Racquet-tailed  species  of  the  genus 
Tanysiptera  were  not  procured,  though  Dr.  H.  A. 
Lorentz  met  with  a  specimen  on  the  Noord  River. 

FAMILIES    PSITTACID^E   AND    LOKIID.E — PARROTS 
AND    LORIES. 

Another  very  numerously  represented  group  is  the 
Parrots  of  which  twenty-two  different  species  were 
procured,  varying  in  size  from  the  Great  Black  Cockatoo 
{Microglossus  aterrimus),  which  is  about  the  size  of  a 
Raven  and  has  an  enormously  powerful  bill,  to  the 
tiny  Pygmy  Parrot  (Nasiterna  keiensis)  which  is  about 
the  size  of  a  Golden-crested  Wren.  This  latter  species 
has  recently  been  described  by  Mr.  Walter  Rothschild 
as  new,  under  the  name  of  Nasiterna  viridipedus  from 


288  PYGMIES   AND   PAPUANS 

specimens  obtained  by  A.  S.  Meek  in  the  Oetakwa  district, 
but  they  do  not  seem  to  differ  from  the  birds  found 
on  the  Kei  and  Aru  Islands  and  also  in  the  neighbour- 
hood of  the  Fly  River.  The  plumage  is  green,  paler 
below,  the  crown  dull  orange,  the  shoulders  spotted 
with  black,  the  middle-tail  feathers  blue  and  the  outer 
pairs  black  with  yellow  and  green  tips.  A  few  solitary 
Black  Cockatoos  might  be  seen  on  the  lower  River, 
sitting  on  the  tops  of  the  highest  trees ;  their  loud 
whistle  always  attracted  attention  and  even  on  their 
high  perches  their  red  faces  and  erect  crests  were  con- 
spicuous. The  Common  Cockatoo  of  the  country  was 
Cacatua  triton,  a  moderate  sized  species  with  a  yellow 
crest  which  was  met  with  in  small  numbers  throughout 
the  mangrove  belt,  but  it  was  a  shy  bird  and  when 
approached  always  flew  away,  screaming.  Lories  of 
different  kinds  were  numerous  and  included  some  of  the 
most  brilliantly  coloured  species,  Lorius  erythrothorax 
combining  in  its  plumage  black,  crimson,  scarlet,  purple, 
blue,  green  and  bright  yellow.  The  adult  has  the  under 
wing-coverts  uniform  scarlet  in  marked  contrast  to  the 
bright  yellow  inner  webs  of  the  primary  quills,  but  in 
younger  birds  the  smaller  under  wing-coverts  are  mottled 
with  scarlet,  blue,  black,  green  and  yellow  and  the  long 
outer  series  are  yellow  with  greyish-black  ends,  making 
a  dark  band  at  the  base  of  the  quills.  In  this  stage  the 
bird  has  been  described  by  Dr.  A.  B.  Meyer  as  Lorius 
salvadorii. 

A  less  briUiantly  coloured  and  more  common  species 
in  the  neighbourhood  of  the  Mimika  was  Eos  fuscatus 
which  has  the  general  colour  above  sooty-black  shaded 
on  the  middle  of  the  crown,  neck,  etc.  with  reddish- 
orange  and  the  under-parts  widely  banded  with  scarlet. 
A  lovely  species  with  a  longer  tail  was  Trichoglossus 
cyaiwgrammtis  which  is  green  with  a  blue  face  and  green- 
ish-yellow collar,  and  has  the  scarlet  chest-feathers  edged 


APPENDIX  A  289 

with  purple,  while  the  belly  and  flanks  are  yellow  barred 
with  green. 

The  tiniest  Lory  is  Loriculus  meeki,  a  minute  species, 
about  the  size  of  a  Blue  Titmouse,  with  brilliant  green 
plumage,  orange-yellow  forehead,  and  the  rump  and 
upper  tail-coverts  as  well  as  a  spot  on  the  throat  scarlet. 
The  female  differs  in  having  the  forehead  and  cheeks 
verditer-green. 

The  genus  Geoffroyus  is  represented  by  two  species : 
the  commoner  G.  amensis  with  the  plumage  green,  the 
male  having  the  crown  and  nape  violet-blue  and  the 
rest  of  the  head  and  neck  scarlet,  while  in  the  female 
these  parts  are  brown ;  also  the  much  rarer  G.  simplex 
which  is  entirely  green  with  a  dull  lilac  blue  ring  round  the 
neck.  This  latter  is  a  very  rare  bird  in  collections,  but 
was  seen  on  the  higher  parts  of  the  mountains  above  the 
Iwaka  River  in  flocks  of  upwards  of  twenty  individuals. 

Other  small  and  brilliantly  coloured  species  of  Lories 
are  Charmosynopsis  pulchella  and  C.  muUistriata,  the 
latter  a  remarkable  new  species  with  green  plumage,  and 
the  whole  of  the  under-parts  streaked  with  bright  yellow. 
It  was  recently  described  by  Mr.  Rothschild  from  a  male, 
shot  by  A.  S.  Meek  on  the  Oetakwa  River ;  a  second 
specimen,  a  female,  was  obtained  on  the  Mimika  by 
Mr.  Goodfellow.  We  must  also  mention  Chalcopsittacns 
scintillans,  Hypocharmosyna  placens,  Charmosyna  jose- 
phincB,  the  rare  Glossopsittacits  goldiei,  and  three  species 
of  Cyclopsittacus,  viz.  C.  melanogenys,  which  is  green 
with  a  white  throat,  black  cheeks,  deep  orange  breast, 
and  ultramarine  wings ;  C.  diophthahnus ;  and  C.  god- 
mani,  a  new  and  handsome  species  with  the  general 
colour  green,  the  head  and  nape  orange-scarlet,  the 
upper  mantle  orange-yellow,  the  cheeks  covered  with 
long,  pointed,  yellowish  feathers,  and  the  chest  verditer- 
blue. 

Behind  the  camp  at  Wakatimi  lay  a  swamp  which 

u 


290  PYGMIES  AND   PAPUANS 

Mr.  Goodfellow  tells  us  was  every  night  the  roosting- 
place  of  thousands  of  Lories,  chiefly  Eos  fuscatus,  and 
there  were  also  smaller  flocks  of  Trichoglossus  cyano- 
gramnius.  Long  before  sunset  and  until  it  was  quite 
dusk  flocks  of  many  hundred  birds  coming  from  all 
directions  flew  over  with  a  deafening  noise.  Often  some 
weak  branch  would  give  way  under  their  weight,  causing 
a  panic  just  as  the  noise  was  beginning  to  subside,  and 
clouds  of  these  birds  would  again  circle  around,  seeking 
a  fresh  roosting  place  and  keeping  up  a  continual  din. 

One   of   the   most   peculiar   Parrots,   and   bearing  a 
marked  external  resemblance  to  the  Kea  of  New  Zealand, 
is  the  Vulturine  Parrot  (Dasyptilus  pesqueti)  which  has 
the  black   skin   of   the  face   almost   entirely  bare,  the 
plumage  black  and  scarlet  on  the  wings,  rump  and  belly, 
the   breast    feathers   having  pale   sandy  margins.      Its 
hoarse,    grating   call,    quite    unlike   that    of    any   other 
species,  could   be  heard  a  long  way  off,  and  was  con- 
tinually uttered  when   on   the   wing.      Mr.  Goodfellow 
says  it  usually  moves  about  in  parties  of  four  or  five 
individuals,  and  that  occasionally  as  many  as  seven  may 
be  seen  together.     When  not  feeding  they  always  select 
the  tallest  trees  to  rest  in,  preferring  dead  ones  which 
tower  about   the   general  level   of   the   jungle,  and   in 
which  they  remain  for  hours  at  a  time  in  rain  or  sun- 
shine.    They  do  not  climb  after  the  usual  manner  of 
Parrots,  but  jump  from  branch  to  branch  with  a  jerky 
movement,  like  the  Lories,  and  with  a  rapid   flicking 
movement   of   the   wings.     They  feed    entirely  on  soft 
fruits,  chiefly  wild  figs.     Apparently  the  species  feeds  on 
the   plains  and  retires  to  the  mountains   to  roost,  for 
every  evening  flocks  or  pairs  were  observed  passing  high 
over  the    camp   at    Parimau,    and  making    their   way 
towards  the  Saddle-peak  range. 

A  handsome  new  Parroquet  of  the  genus  ApyosmicUis 
was  discovered,  and  has  been  named  A.  wilhelmince,  in 


APPENDIX   A  291 

honour  of  the  Queen  of  Holland.  The  male  has  the 
head,  neck  and  under-parts  scarlet,  the  wings  green,  with 
a  pale  j^ellow  green  band  across  the  coverts,  the  mantle 
and  back  mostly  deep  purplish-blue,  and  the  tail  black 
tinged  with  purplish. 

Finally,  the  Eclectus  Parrot  (Ecledus  pedoralis)  was 
common.  The  remarkable  difference  in  the  colouration 
of  the  sexes  might  lead  some  to  believe  that  they  belonged 
to  quite  different  species,  the  male  being  mostly  green 
with  scarlet  sides  and  under  wing-coverts,  while  the 
female  is  maroon  with  the  head,  neck  and  breast  scarlet, 
and  the  mantle,  belly,  sides  and  under  wing-coverts  blue. 

FAMILIES    BUBONIDAL   AND    STRIGID.^ — WOOD-OWLS    AND 
BARN-OWLS. 

The  only  Owl  of  which  examples  were  obtained  was 
a  small  species  of  Brown  Hawk-Owl  {Ninox  theomaca), 
with  the  upper-parts,  back,  wings  and  tail  uniform  dark 
brown,  and  the  under-parts  deep  chestnut.  It  was  a 
strictly  nocturnal  species,  and  confined  to  the  jungle  along 
the  base  of  the  mountains,  where  its  weird  double  call 
"  yon-yon  "  might  constantly  be  heard  after  dark. 

A  form  of  the  Barn-Owl  (Strix  novcB-hollandicB), 
which  occurs  in  the  district,  was  not  obtained  by  the 
Expedition. 

FAMILY   FALCONIDyE — EAGLES   AND    HAWKS. 

New  Guinea  possesses  a  very  remarkable  Harpy-Eagle 
(Harpy opsis  novcB-guinecB)  allied  to  the  Harpy  Eagles  of 
America  and  to  the  Great  Monkey-eating  Eagle  (Pitlic- 
cophaga  jefferyi)  which  inhabits  the  forests  of  the  Philip- 
pine Islands.  The  New  Guinea  bird  is  like  a  large 
Goshawk,  having  a  long  tail  and  comparatively  short  and 
rounded  wings ;  the  feet  are  armed  with  very  powerful 
claws,  but  in  strength  and  power  it  is  far  inferior  to  its 


292  PYGMIES  AND   PAPUANS 

great  Philippine  all}'  or  to  the  still  more  powerful  species 
inhabiting  Central  America.  Mr.  Claude  Grant  says  that 
this  species  was  seldom  met  with  ;  it  has  a  rather  loud 
cry  and  a  beautiful  soaring  flight,  often  in  ascending 
circles.  Besides  this  large  Eagle,  two  species  of  Goshawk 
Astur  etorques  and  A.  poliocephalus  were  met  with,  like- 
wise a  small  chestnut  and  white  Brahminy  Kite  [Haliastur 
girrenera).  A  small  Sparrow-Hawk  was  obtained  near 
the  mouth  of  the  Mimika  River,  but  being  in  immature 
plumage  its  identification  is  at  present  uncertain.  Rein- 
war  dt's  Cuckoo-Falcon  (Baza  reinwardti)  with  a  crested 
head  and  banded  breast,  was  rather  a  rare  bird  and 
appears  to  feed  largely  on  insects. 


FAMILY   PHALACROCORACID.E — CORMORANTS. 

The  small  black-backed  white-breasted  species  Phala- 
crocorax  melanoleuats  is  the  only  representative  of  this 
group.  Several  specimens  were  shot  on  the  upper  waters 
of  the  Mimika,  at  Parimau  and  at  the  base  camp  at 
Wakatimi. 


FAMILY  ANATID.E—UVCKS. 

The  handsome  white-necked  Sheld-duck  {Tadorna 
radjah)  differs  from  the  Australian  form  in  being  much 
darker  on  the  back,  the  plumage  being  practically  black 
with  indistinct  mottlings  of  duh  rufous  on  the  mantle. 
This  dark  form,  found  also  in  the  ^Moluccas,  was  common 
about  the  mouth  of  the  Mimika  River.  The  more  rufous- 
backed  Austrahan  form  has  been  named  T.  rufitergum  by 
Dr.  Hartert. 

The  only  other  species  of  duck  brought  home  was  an 
immature  male  Garganey  {Querquedula  discors)  shot  on 
the  Kapare  River. 


APPENDIX   A  293 

FAMILY   IB  ID  ID. E — IBISES. 

The  Eastern  form  of  the  Sacred  Ibis  [Ihis  sticiipcnnis) 
was  met  with  at  the  mouth  of  the  Mimika.  It  is  easily 
distinguished  from  its  western  all}^  by  having  the  inner- 
most secondaries  mottled  with  black  and  white. 

FAMILY   ARDEIDJ: — HERONS. 

Several  different  species  of  Herons  were  procured  in- 
cluding the  Night  Heron  [Nycticorax  caledonica) ;  the 
Yellow-necked  Heron  (Dupctov  flavicollis) ;  the  White 
Heron  (Hevodias  timoriensis) ;  and  a  Tiger-Bittern 
(Tigrisoma  heliosylus).  The  last  named  is  a  very  fine  bird 
with  the  general  colour  above  black  boldly  barred  with 
rufous  and  buff ;  the  under-parts  buff  barred  on  the  neck 
and  chest  with  black.  The  feathers  on  the  neck  and 
chest  are  very  long  and  broad  and  no  doubt  form  a  most 
imposing  ruff  when  the  bird  is  displaying. 

FAMILIES    CEDICNEMID.E,    CHARADRIID.E   AND    LARID^E — • 
STONE-PLOVERS,    PLOVERS,   AND    GULLS 

A  number  of  small  wading  birds  were  also  procured 
near  the  mouth  of  the  river,  and  two  species  of  Terns, 
but  as  all  belong  to  well-known,  widely  distributed  species, 
there  is  no  special  interest  attaching  to  them.  I  may 
however  mention  that  the  great  Australian  Curlew 
(Numenius  cyanopus),  and  the  large  Australian  Thicknee 
{Esacus  magnirostris)  were  among  the  species  found  at 
the  mouth  of  the  Mimika. 

FAMILY   RALLID^E — RAILS. 

The  only  Rail  met  with  was  an  example  of  Rallina 
tricolor  which  has  the  head,  neck  and  chest  bright  chest- 
nut, and  the  rest  of  the  plumage  dark  brown  with  white 
bars  on  the  wing-feathers.  It  is  also  met  with  in  some 
of  the  Papuan  Islands  and  in  North-eastern  Australia. 


294  PYGMIES  AND   PAPUANS 

FAMILY   COLUMBID^E — PIGEONS. 

Pigeons  were  very  numerously  represented,  no  fewer 
than  twenty-six  different  species  being  obtained  by 
the  Expedition.  Some  of  the  smaller  forms  are  among 
the  most  beautifully  coloured  birds  met  with  in  New 
Guinea.  The  Crowned  Pigeons  (Goura)  are  represented 
by  G.  sclatcri  which  was  fairly  common  near  the  base 
camp  and  met  with  in  all  places  visited  by  the  Expe- 
dition. In  spite  of  the  numbers  shot  for  food  during  the 
whole  time  the  Expedition  remained  in  the  country, 
the  supply  did  not  appear  to  diminish.  This  fine  Pigeon 
and  a  few  others  afforded  the  only  fresh  meat  to  be  had. 
On  the  canoe-journeys  up  the  river  Sclater's  Goura  was 
frequently  met  with  in  the  early  mornings  in  parties  of 
two  or  three  searching  for  aquatic  life  along  the  muddy 
banks.  When  disturbed  they  did  not  immediately  take 
flight,  but  with  raised  wings  pirouetted  around  for  a  few 
seconds  and  then  flew  to  the  nearest  high  tree.  Mr. 
Goodfellow  found  the  remains  of  small  crabs  in  their 
stomachs  and  a  large  percentage  of  the  birds  shot  were 
infested  by  a  small  red  parasite,  the  same,  or  similar  to 
that  which  is  known  in  other  parts  of  New  Guinea  as 
"Scrub-itch." 

Another  very  handsome  bird  is  the  Ground-Pigeon 
[Oiidiphaps  nohilis)  with  the  head  bluish-black,  the  nape 
dull  metallic  green,  the  mantle  and  wings  purplish-chest- 
nut and  the  rest  of  the  plumage  deep  purple,  all  being 
more  or  less  metallic.  Its  long  legs  and  the  upward 
carriage  of  its  long  tail  give  it  much  the  appearance  of  a 
Bantam  hen.  It  was  fairly  common,  but  being  extremely 
shy  was  rarely  met  with. 

Among  the  larger  Fruit-Pigeons  we  must  specially 
mention  Carpophaga  pinoii  which  has  the  general  appear- 
ance of  a  large  Wood-Pigeon.  It  was  met  with  in  large 
flocks  and  proved  an  excellent  bird  for  the  table.    Another 


APPENDIX  A  295 

very  striking  species,  of  rather  lesser  proportions  and 
very  much  rarer,  was  Muller's  Fruit-Pigeon  {Carpophaga 
mulleri)  easily  distinguished  by  its  white  throat,  the  bold 
black  ring  round  its  neck  and  its  shining  chestnut  mantle. 
Among  the  handsomest  was  Carpophaga  rufiventris,  a 
bird  with  the  breast  cinnamon  and  the  wings  and  back 
metahic  green,  copper  and  purple.  Lastly  a  very  striking 
form  was  the  large  creamy-white  Pigeon  {MyrisHcivora 
spilorrhoa)  with  the  flight  feathers,  tips  of  the  tail- 
feathers  and  under  tail-coverts  blackish.  It  appears 
to  be  entirely  confined  to  the  mangrove  swamps  and  was 
observed  breeding  in  May  along  the  creeks  near  the 
mouth  of  the  river,  no  less  than  seven  nests  being  found 
in  one  tree. 

As  already  stated  among  the  smaller  Fruit-Pigeons 
many    are    very    beautifully    marked     and    brilliantly 
coloured,  but  always  with  the  most  harmonious  shades. 
It  would  seem  as  though  Nature  had  almost  exhausted 
her  scheme  of  colouration  in  dealing  with  some  of  these 
birds ;  for  we  find  two  totally  different  species,  Ptilopiis 
zonurus  and  P.  gestroi,  occurring  together  in  which  the 
markings  and  colours  of  the  plumage  are  almost  identical ; 
on  the  under-surface  the  two  species  are  practically  alike, 
both  have  the  chin  and  throat  pale  lavender,  extending 
in  a  ring  round  the  neck,  the  throat  orange,  the  chest 
washed  with  vinous  and  the  remainder  of  the  under-parts 
green ;    on  the  upper-surface,  the  top  of  the  head  and 
nape  are  greenish-yellow  and  the  rest  of  the  upper-parts 
green,  but  in  P.  zonurus  the  median  wing-coverts  are 
green  with  a  subterminal  spot  of  bright  pink,  while  in 
P.   gestroi   the  least  wing-coverts  are  crimson  and  the 
next  series  grey  fringed  with  greenish-yellow.     Another 
parahel  case  of  close  resemblance  is  found  between  the 
small   Ptilopus  nanus    and    the    larger    P.  coronulaUis. 
Though  really  extremely  distinct  species  the  under-parts 
are  very  similarly  coloured  both  being  green  with  a  bright 


296  PYGMIES  AND   PAPUANS 

magenta  patch  on  the  middle  of  the  breast  and  the  belly 
and  under-tail  coverts  mostly  bright  yellow :  viewed 
from  the  upper  surface  the  two  birds  are,  however,  very 
different,  P.  coromdattis  having  the  crown  lilac-pink, 
edged  posteriorly  with  bands  of  crimson  and  yellow, 
while  P.  nanus  has  the  head  green,  but  the  ends  of  the 
scapulars  and  secondaries  are  deep  shining  bluish-green, 
tipped  with  bright  3-ellow.  Even  more  brilliantly 
coloured  species  than  the  above  are  Ptilopus  pitlchellus, 
P.  superbus,  P.  atirantiifrons  and  P.  helliis. 

Near  the  camp  at  Wataikwa  large  flocks  of  D' Albertis' 
Pigeon  {Gymnophaps  alhertisii)  were  observed  coming  in 
every  evening  from  their  feeding-grounds  on  the  high 
mountains  to  roost  on  the  plains  below.  Mr.  Goodfellow 
tells  us  that  their  flight  is  extremely  rapid  and  that  their 
strange  aerial  evolutions  remind  one  of  the  common 
"Tumbler"  Pigeons. 

The  Long-tailed  Cuckoo-Doves  were  represented 
by  the  very  large  Reinwardtcenas  griseotincta  and  the 
smaller  chestnut-plumaged  Macropygia  griseinucha ;  the 
former  being  a  large  and  abnormally  long-tailed  bird 
with  the  head,  mantle  and  under-parts  grey,  and  the 
back  and  tail  chestnut. 


FAMILY   MEGAPODIID.-E — MEGAPODES    OR   MOUND- 
BUILDERS. 

The  Game-birds  are  represented  by  three  species  of 
Mound-builders,  two  being  Brush-Turkeys  and  the  other 
a  true  Megapode  (Megapodius  freycineti).  The  fact  that 
two  closely  allied  species  of  Brush-Turkeys  are  found  in 
the  same  district  is  of  considerable  interest.  The  common 
species  of  the  country  Talegallus  /tiscirostris  has  a  very 
wide  coastal  range,  being  also  found  in  S.E.  New 
Guinea  and  extending  along  the  north  coast  to  the 
middle  of  Geclvinck  Bay.    The  other  species  T.  cuvieri 


APPENDIX  A  297 

is  of  western  origin  being  hitherto  known  from  the  Arfak 
Peninsula,  and  the  islands  of  Salwatti,  Mysol  and  Gilolo. 
Its  occurrence  on  the  Iwaka  river  was  quite  unexpected 
and  no  doubt  the  range  of  the  two  species  overlap  in  the 
neighbourhood  of  the  Mimika  in  the  south  and  in  the 
vicinity  of  Rubi  on  Geelvinck  Bay  in  the  north.  In 
both  the  plumage  is  black,  but  T.  cuvieri  is  a  larger  bird 
than  T.  fuscirostris  and  is  easily  recognised  by  having 
the  tibia  feathered  right  down  to  the  tibio-tarsal  joint 
and  the  bill  orange-red  instead  of  sooty-brown. 

All  these  species  are  of  the  greatest  interest  on 
account  of  their  remarkable  nesting  habits,  and  their 
nesting  mounds  of  decaying  vegetable  matter  were 
conspicuous  objects  in  the  jungle.  The  eggs,  which  arc 
very  large  for  the  size  of  the  birds,  are  buried  among 
the  debris  which  the  birds  rake  together  into  a  large 
heap,  the  young  being  hatched,  as  in  an  incubator,  by  the 
warmth  of  the  decaying  leaves.  The  parent  bird,  after 
burying  its  eggs,  takes  no  further  notice  of  them,  but  the 
young  on  leaving  the  shell  are  fully  feathered  and  able 
to  fly  and  take  care  of  themselves. 

F  AM  I LY    CASUARIIDJE — CASSOWARI ES. 

The  discovery  made  by  Mr.  Walter  Goodfellow  that 
two  distinct  forms  of  two-wattled  Cassowary  occur  side 
by  side  on  the  Mimika  River  has  greatly  modified  Mr. 
Rothschild's  views  on  the  classification  of  the  genus,  and 
he  now  finds  that  the  ten  forms  possessing  two  wattles, 
when  placed  side  by  side  fall  naturally  into  two  groups, 
one  consisting  of  the  Common  Cassowary  (Casuarius 
casuarius),  divisible  into  six  sub-species  or  races,  and 
the  other  of  C.  hicarunculaUis  which  may  be  divided 
into  four  sub-species.  The  large  forms  found  on  the 
Mimika  are  C.  sclateri,  representing  the  first  group,  and 
C.  intensus  representing  the  second.     Both  these  birds 


298  PYGMIES  AND   PAPUANS 

have  a  large  elevated  casque  or  helmet  and  differ  chiefly 
in  the  pattern  and  colouration  of  the  bare  neck-wattles. 

These  Cassowaries  were  seen  at  various  times  search- 
ing for  food  in  the  pools  and  shallow  waters  of  the 
river-beds,  and  during  the  cross-country  marches  would 
sometimes  dash  across  the  trail,  affording  but  a  momen- 
tary glimpse. 

The  natives  have  distinct  names  for  the  male  and 
female  birds  and  judging  from  the  quantities  of  feathers 
in  their  possession  must  often  succeed  in  capturing  them. 
Eggs  and  newly-hatched  chicks  were  brought  in  during 
January  and  February.  On  one  occasion  at  Parimau 
some  eggs  must  have  been  kept  by  the  natives  for  a  few 
da5^s  before  they  hatched,  for  young  were  brought  to  the 
camp  which  had  evidently  just  emerged  from  the  shells. 

A  very  interesting  discovery  was  made  by  Mr.  Claude 
Grant  on  the  foot-hills,  where  he  met  with  a  new  dwarf 
species  of  Cassowary,  C.  claudii.  It  is  allied  to  C.  papu- 
anus^  but  has  the  hind  part  of  the  crown  and  occiput 
black  instead  of  white.  Like  that  bird  it  has  a  low 
triangular  casque  and  belongs  to  a  different  section  of 
the  genus  from  the  two  larger  species  already  mentioned. 

C.  claudii  has  very  brihiantly  coloured  soft  parts. 
The  occiput  and  sides  of  the  head  are  entirely  black ; 
between  the  gape  and  the  ear  is  a  patch  of  deep  plum- 
colour  ;  the  upper  half  of  the  back  of  the  neck  is  electric- 
blue,  shading  into  violet-blue  on  the  sides  and  fore-part 
of  the  neck  including  the  throat ;  the  lower  half  of  the 
back  of  the  neck  is  orange-chrome,  this  colour  extending 
down  the  upper  margin  of  a  bare  magenta-coloured  area 
situated  on  each  side  of  the  feathered  part  of  the  neck. 
This  fine  bird  is  now  mounted  and  on  exhibition  in  the 
Bird  Gallery  at  the  Natural  History  Museum. 


APPENDIX  A  299 


LIST  OF  THE  PRINCITAL  PAPERS  RELATING  TO  THE  BIRDS 
OF  NEW  GUINEA,  INCLUDING  THE  KEI  AND  ARU 
ISLANDS. 

1875-SS.      Gould.     Birds   of   New   Guinea   and    the   adjacent   Papuan    Islands. 

(Completed  by  R.  B.  Sharpe)  (1875-SS). 
1SS0-S2       Salvadori.     Ornitologia  dclla  Papuasia  c  dellc  Molluche.      Vols.   I-III. 
&  18S9-91.  (iSSo-82).     Aggiuntc,  pts.  I.-III.  (18S9-91). 

1553.  Ramsay.     Proc.  Linn.  Soc.  N.S.W.  VIIL  pp.  15-29  (1883). 

1554.  Sharpe.     Journ.  Linn.  Soc.  Zool.  XVII.  pp.  405-40S  (1S84). 
Meyer.     Zeit.  Ges.  Orn  i.  pp.  269-296,  pis.  XIV.-XVIII.  (1884). 

1555.  Fiusch  and  Meyer.      Zeit.  ges.  Orn.  II.  pp.  369-391,  pis.  XV.-XXII. 

(1885). 
GuiUemard.     P.Z.S.  1885,  pp.  Gis-Ge",,  pi.  XXXIX. 

1556.  Meyer.     Monat.  Schutze  Vogehv.  18S6,  pp.  85-SS,  pi. 
Meyer.     P.Z.S.  18S6,  pp.  297-298. 

Finsch  and  Meyer.     Zeit.  ges.  Orn.  III.  pp.  1-29,  pis.  I.-VI.  (1S86). 

Meyer.     Zeit.  ges.  Orn.  III.  pp.  30-38  (1S86). 

Salvadori,    Ibis  1886,  pp.  1 51-155. 
18S7.  Ramsay.     Proc.  Linn.  Soc.  N.S.W.  (2)  II.  pp.  239-240  (1887). 

Bartlett.     P.Z.S.  1887,  p.  392. 

Oiistalet.     Le  Nat.  I.  pp.  180-1S2  (1887). 
1SS8.  Meyer.     Reisen  in  Kaiser  Wilhelms-Land  und  Englisch  New-Guinea 

in  dem  Jahren  1884  u.   1885  an  Bord  des  Deutschcn  Damfcrs 
"  Samoa."     Leipsig,  1888. 

Cabanis.     J.f.O.  1888,  p.  119. 

1889.  Cabanis.     J.f.O.  1889,  p.  62,  pis.  i  &  2, 
Meyer.     J.f.O.  1SS9,  pp.  321-326. 

De  Vis.     Proc.  Roy.  Soc.  Queensland  VI.  pp.  245-248  (1889). 

1890.  De  Vis.     British  New  Guinea.     Report  of  the  Administration  for  the 

period  4th  Sept.  1888  to  30th  June,  18S9. 

App.  G,  Report  on  Birds  from  British  New  Guinea,  pp.  105-116 
(1890). 

(Reprinted,  Ibis  1891,  pp.  25-41). 
Goodwin.     Ibis  1890,  pp.  150-156. 
Meyer.     Ibis  1890,  p.  412,  pi.  XII. 
Salvad.     Ann.  Mus.  Civ.  Genov.  (2)  IX.  pp.  554-592  (1S90). 

1891.  Oiistalet.     Le  Nat.  V.  pp.  260-261  (1891). 
Sclater.     Ibis  1891,  p.  414,  pi.  X. 

Meyer.     Abh.  Zool.  Mus.  Dresden  1891,  No.  4,  pp.  1-17. 
1891-98.      Sharpe.     Monogr.  ParadiseidcB  and  Ptilonorhynchidcs  (1891-9S). 

1892.  De  Vis.     Ann.  Queensland  Mus.  II.  pp.  4-1 1  (1892). 

De  Vis.     Annual    Report    Brit.    New   Guinea,    1890-91.      App.    CC. 

pp.  93-97.  Pl-  (1892). 
Salvad.     Ann.  Mus  Civ.  Genov.  (2)  X.  pp.  797-834  (1S92). 
Meyer.     J.f.O.  1892,  pp.  254-266. 
Crowley.     Bull.  B.O.C.  i.  p.  XVI.   (1892). 

1893.  Meyer.     Abh.  Zool.  Mus.  Dres.  1892-93,  No.  3.  pp.  1-33,  pis.  i  &  2. 
Oustalet.     Nouv.  Archiv.  Mus.  Paris,   (3)   IV.  pp.  218-220,  pl.  XV. ; 

V.  pp.  295-299,  pl.  VI. 

Sclater.  Ibis  1893,  pp.  243-246,  pl.  VII.  text  fig. 

Finsch.  Ibis  1893,  pp.  463-464. 

Meyer.  Ibis  1893,  pp.  481-483,  pl.  XIII. 

1894.  De  Vis.  Annual  Report,  Brit.New  Guinea,  1894,  pp.  99-io5- 
Salvad.  Ann.  Mus.  Civ.  Genov.  (2)  XIV.  pp.  150-152  (1894). 
Meyer.  Bull.  B.O.C.  IV.  pp.  VI.,  VII..  XL,  XII.  (1894). 


300  PYGMIES  AND  PAPUANS 

1S94.  Rolkschild.     Bull.  B.O.C.  IV.  p.  XI.  (1894). 

Sharpe.     Bull.  B.O.C.  IV.  pp.  XII.-XV.  (1894). 
Reiche7iow.     Orn.  Monatsb.  II.  p.  22  (1894). 

Meyer.     Abh.  Zool.  Mus.  Drcs.  1894-95.  No.  2.  pp.  1-4.  pi.  (1894). 
Biitiikofer.     Notes  Leydcn  Mus.  XVI.  pp.  161-165  {1894). 
Mead.      Amcr.  Natural.  XXVIII.  pp.  915-920.    pis.  XXIX. -XXXI. 
(1894). 

1895.  Meyer.     Bull.  B.O.C.  IV.  p.  XVII.  (1S95). 

Meyer.     Abh.  Zool.  Mus.  Dres.  1894-95,  no.  5.  pp.  i-ii.  pis.  i  &  2. 

No.  10.  pp.  1-2,  pi.  I.  figs.  1-4  (1S95). 
Rothschild.     Nov.  Zool.  II.  pp.  22,  59,  480,  pis.  III.  6c  V.  (1S95). 
Hartert.     Nov.  Zool.  II.  p.  67  (1895). 

Rothschild.     Bull.  B.  O.  C.  IV.  pp.  XXI.,  XXVI. ,  XLII.  (1895)- 
Ogilvie-Grant.     Bull.  B.O.C.  V.  p.  XV.  (1S95). 
Mead.     Amer.  Natural.  XXIX.  pp.  1-9,409-417,627-636,  1056-1065, 

pi.  VII.  (1895). 
Sanyal.     P.Z.S.  1895,  pp.  541-542. 
Oustalet.     Bull.  Mus.  Paris.  1S95,  pp.  47-50, 
Sclater.     Ibis  1895,  pp.  343,  344,  pi.  VIII. 

1896.  Rothschild  and  Hartert. '  Nov.  Zool.  III.,  pp.  8,  252,  530,  534,  pi.  I. 

(1896). 
Rothschild.     Nov.  Zool.  III.,  pp.  10-19  (1S96). 
Salvadori.     Ann.  Mus.  Civ.  Gen.  (2)  XVI.,  pp.  55-120  (1896). 
Salvadori.     Bull.  B.O.C.  V.  p.  XXII.  (1896). 
Rothschild.     Bull.  B.O.C.  VI.  pp.  XV.-XVI.  (1896). 
Oustalet.     Nouv.  Archiv.  Mus.  Paris  (3)  VIII.  pp.  263-267,  pis.  XIV. 

&  XV.  (1896). 

1897.  Rothschild.      Bull.    B.O.C.  VI.  pp.  XV.,  XVI.,  XXIV.,  XXV.,  XL., 

XLV.,  LIV.  (1S97). 
Rothschild.     Bull.  B.O.C.  VII.  pp.  XXI.-XXII.  (1897). 
Reichenow.     Orn.  Monatsb.  V.  pp.  24-26,  161,  178,  179  (1897). 
Kleinschmidt.     Orn.  Monatsb.  \'.  p.  46  (1897). 
Kleinschmidt.     J.f.O.  1S97,  pp.  174-178,  text-fig. 
Reichejww.     J.f.O.  1S97,  pp.  201-224,  pis.  V.  &  VI. 
Rothschild.     Nov.  Zool.  IV.  p.  169,  pi.  II.  fig.  2  (1897). 
Hartert.     Nov.  Zool.  IV.  p.  396  (1897). 
De  Vis.     Ibis  1897,  pp.  250-252,  371-392,  pi.  VII. 
Madarasz.     Termes  Fiizetek  XX.  pp.  17-54.  pis.  i  &  2  (1S97). 
Mead.     Amer.  Natural.  XXXI.  pp.  204-210  (1897). 

1898.  Hartert.     Bull.  B.O.C.  VIII.  pp.  VIII.  &  IX.  (1898). 
Rothschild.     Bull.  B.O.C.  VIII.  p.  XIV.  (1898). 
Rothschild.     Das  Tierreich  ParadiseidcB,  52  pp.  Berlin,  1898. 

De  Vis.     Annual  Report,  New  Guinea,  App.  AA.  Report  on  birds  for 

1896-97,  pp.  81-90  (1S9S). 
Finsch.     Notes  Levden  Mus.  XX.  pp.  129-136  (1898). 
Rothschild.     Nov.  Zool.  V.  pp.  84-87,  418,  509,  513,  pi.  XVIII.  (1S9S). 
Reichciww.     J.f.O.  189S,  pp.  124-12S,  pi.  i. 
Calcy-Wcbster.     Through   New   Guinea   and   the   Cannibal   Countries. 

Appendices  on  birds  bv  Messrs.  Rothschild  and  Hartert  (189S). 
1S99.  Salvadori.     Ann.  Mus.  Civ.'Genov.  (2)  XIX.  pp.  57S-582  (1899). 

Rothschild.     Nov.  Zool.  VI.  pp.  75  &  218,  pis.  II.  &  III.  (1S99). 
Hartert.     Nov.  Zool.  VI.  p.  219,  pi.  IV.  (1S99). 
Madarasz.      Termes,   Fuzetek.   XXII.  pp.   375-428,   pis.   XV.-XVII. 

(1S99). 
1900.  Finsch.     Notes  Levden  Mus.  XXII.  pp.  49-69  &  70  {1900). 

Rothschild.     Bull.  B.O.C.  X.  pp.  C.  CI.  (1900). 
Rothschild.     Bull.  B.O.C.  XI.  pp.  25,  26,  30  (1900). 
Madarasz.     Orn.  Monatsb.  VIII.  pp.  1-4  (1900). 
Renshaw.     Nature  Notes  XI.  pp.  164-167  (1900). 
Cunie.     P.U.S.  Nat.  Mus.  XXII.  pp.  497-499,  ph  XVII.  (1900). 


APPENDIX  A  301 

1900.  Le  Soucf.     Ibis  1900,  pp.  612,  617,  tcxt-ficf.  r. 

1901.  Rothschild.     Bull.  B.O.C.  XII.  p.  34  (1901). 
Reichenow.     Orn.  Monatsb.  IX.  pp.  1 85-1  So  (1901). 
Madarasz.     Termes  Fiizetek,  XXIV.  p.  73  (1901). 
Hartert.     Nov.  Zool.  VIII.  pp.  i,  93  (1901). 

Rothschild  and  Hartert.      Nov.  Zool,  VIII.  pp.  53,   102,  pis.  II.-IV. 
(1901). 

1902.  Weiske.     Ein  Beitrag  zur  Naturgcschichtc  dcr  Laiibcnvogt-l.  Monat. 

Schutze  Vogelw.  XXVII.  pp.  41-45  (1902). 
Sclater.     Bull.  B.O.C.  XIII.  p.  23  (1902). 

1903.  Rothschild.     Bull.  B.O.C.  XIII.  p.  32  (1903). 
Finsch.      Orn.  Monatsb.  XI.  p.  167  (1903). 
Renshaw.     Avicult.  Mag.  (2)  II.  pp.  26-27,  fig.  (1903). 

Rothschild  and   Hartert.      Nov.   Zool.    X.   pp.    65-S9,   pi.    I.    196-231, 

435-480,  pis.  XIII.  &  XIV.  (1903). 
Hartert.     Nov.  Zool.  X.  pp.  232-254  (1903). 

1904.  Rothschild.     Bull.  B.O.C.  XIV.  pp.  38-40(1904). 
Ogilvie-Grant.     Bull.  B.O.C.  XIV.  p.  40  (1904). 

1905.  Ogilvie-Grant.     Ibis  1905,  pp.  429-440,  pi.  Yiii.  tcxt-figs.  22-26. 
Pycraft.     Ibis  1905,  pp.  440-453. 

Sharpe.     Bull.  B.O.C.  XV.  p.  91  (1905). 
Salvadori.     Ibis  1905,  pp.  401-429,  535-542. 
1905-10.      Salvadori.     In  Wj'tsman,  Genera  Avium.   Psittaci,  pts.   5,    11,  &   12 
(1905-1910). 

1906.  Salvadori.     Ibis,  1906,  pp.  124-131,  326-333  ;  451-465,  642-659 
Rothschild.     Bull  B.O.C.  XIX.  pp.  7-8,  27  (1906). 

Foerster  and  Rothschild.     Two  new  Birds  of  Paradise  Zool.  Mus.  Tring. 

3  pp.  Tring.  ist  October,  1906. 
Van  Oort.     Notes  Leyden  Mus.  XXVIII.  p.  129-130  (1906). 
Ogilvie-Grant.     Bull.  B.O.C.  XIX.  p.  39  (1906). 
North.     Vict.  Nat.  XXII.  pp.  147,  156-8,  pi.  (1906). 

1907.  Salvadori.     Ibis  1907,  pp.  122-151  ;    311-322. 

Ingram,  {Sir  W.).     Ibis  1907,  pp.  225-229,  pi.  V.  text-figs.  8  &  9. 
Simpson.     Ibis  1907,  pp.  380-387,  tcxt-figs. 
Rothschild  and  Hartert.     Nov.  Zool.  XIV.  pp.  433,  447  (1907). 
Rothschild.     Nov.  Zool.  XIV.  p.  504,  pis.  V.-VII.  (1907). 
Rothschild.     Bull.  B.O.C.  XXI.  p.  25  (1907). 
Hartert.     Bull.  B.O.C.  XXI.  p.  26  (1907). 
North.     Vict.  Nat.  XXIV.  p.  136  (1907). 
Ingram,  (C).     Avicult.  Mag.  (2)  V.  p.  364,  pi.  (1907). 
Le  Souef.     Emu.  VI.  p.  1 19-120  (1907). 
190S.  Van  Oort.      Notes  Leyden  Mus.  XXIX.  pp.   170-180,  2  pis.  pp.  204- 

206  I  pi.  (1908). 
Van  Oort.     Notes  Leyden  Mus.  XXX.  pp.  127-128  (190S). 
Rothschild.     Nov.  Zool.  XV.  p.  392  (1908). 
Sharpe.     Bull.  B.O.C.  XXI.  p.  67  (1908). 
Rothschild.     Bull.  B.O.C.  XXIII.  p.  7  (1908). 
Goodfellow.     Bull.  B.O.C.  XXIII.  pp.  35-39  (190R). 

1909.  Beaufort.     Nova  Guinea  V.  Zoologie  Livr.  3,  pp.  389-420  (1909). 

Van  Oort.     Nova  Guinea  IX.,  Zoologie  Livr.   i.     Birds  from  South- 
western and  Southern  New  Guinea,  pp.  51-107,  pi.  III.  (1909). 
Van  Oort.     Notes  Leyden  Mus.  XXX.  pp.  225-244  (1909). 
Horshrugh,  (C.  B.).     Ibis,  1909,  pp.  197-213. 
Sassi.     J.f.O.  1909,  pp.  365-383. 
Nehrkorn.     Orn.  Monatsb.  XVil.  p.  44  (1909). 
Astley.     Avicult.  Mag.  (2)  VII.  pp.  156-158  (1909). 

1910.  Van  Oort.     Notes  Leyden  Mus.  XXXII.  pp.  78-82,  211-216  (1910). 
Madarasz.     Ann.  Hist.  Nat.  Mus.  Nat.  Hung.  Budapest  VIII.,  pp.  172- 

174,  pi.  II.  (1910). 
Goodfellow.     Avicult.  Mag.  (3)  i,  pp.  277-2S6  (1910). 


302  PYGMIES  AND   PAPUANS 

igio.  Ogilvic-Grant.     Bull.  B.O.C.  XXVII.  p.  lo  (iQi^O- 

Rothschild.     Bull.  B.O.C.  XXVII.  pp.  13,  35,  36,  45  (1910). 
Hartert.     Nov.  Zool.  XVII.  p.  484,  pi.  X.  (eggs)  (1910). 

1911.  Rothschild.     Ibis  191 1,  pp.  350-367,  pis.  V.  &  VI. 
Rothschild  and  Hartert.     Nov.  Zool.  XVIII.  pp.  i59-if>7  (i9")- 
Ogilvie-Grant.     Bull.  B.O.C.  XXVII.  pp.  66,  68,  83,  84  (191 1). 

1912.  Rothschild.     Ibis  1912,  pp.  109-112,  pi.  II. 
Ogilvie-Grant.     Ibis  1912,  pp.  112-118,  pi.  III. 

Hartert.     Nov.  Zool.  XVIII.  p.  604,  pis.  VII.  &  VIII.  (1912). 
Rothschild.     Bull.  B.O.C.  XXIX.  pp.  50-52  (191 2). 


APPENDIX   B 

THE   PYGMY   QUESTION 
By   Dr.  a.   C.   HADDON,   F.R.S. 

Pygmies,  as  their  name  implies,  are  very  short  men, 
and  the  first  question  to  decide  is  wliether  this  short 
stature  is  normal  or  merely  a  dwarfing  due  to  unfavour- 
able environment.  Although  stature  cannot  be  taken  as 
a  trustworthy  criterion  of  race,  since  it  is  very  variable 
within  certain  limits  among  most  races,  there  are  certain 
peoples  who  may  be  described  as  normally  tall,  medium, 
or  short.  The  average  human  stature  appears  to  be 
about  I "675  m.  (5  ft.  6  ins.).  Those  peoples  who  are 
1725  (5  ft.  8  ins.)  or  more  in  height  are  said  to  be  tall, 
those  below  1-625  ^i-  (5  ft.  4  ins.)  are  short,  while  those 
who  fall  below  1*5  m.  (4  ft.  11  ins.)  are  now  usually 
termed  pygmies.  One  has  only  to  turn  to  the  investiga- 
tions of  the  Dordogne  district  by  Collignon  and  others  to 
see  how  profoundly  la  miscrc  can  affect  the  stature  of  a 
population  living  under  adverse  conditions,  for  example 
in  the  canton  of  Saint  Mathieu  there  are  %'%  per  cent, 
with  a  stature  below  1-5  m.  But  when  one  finds  within 
one  area,  as  in  the  East  Indian  region,  distinct  peoples 
of  medium,  short  and  pygmy  stature,  living  under  con- 
ditions which  appear  to  be  very  similar,  one  is  inclined 
to  suspect  a  racial  difference  between  them,  and  the 
suspicion  becomes  confirmed  if  we  find  other  characters 
associated  with  pygmy  stature. 

Pygmy   peoples    are   widely   distributed   in   Central 


304  PYGMIES  AND   PAPUANS 

Africa,  but  these  Negrillos,  as  they  are  often  termed,  do 
not  concern  us  now. 

Asiatic  pygmies  have  long  been  known,  but  it  is  only 
comparatively  recently  that  they  have  been  studied 
seriously,  and  even  now  there  remains  much  to  be 
discovered  about  them.  There  are  two  main  stocks  on 
the  eastern  border  of  the  Indian  Ocean,  who  have  a  very 
short  stature  and  are  respectively  characterised  by  curly 
or  wavy  hair  and  by  hair  that  grows  in  close  small  spirals 
• — the  so-called  woolly  hair. 

(i.)  The  Sakai  or  Senoi  of  the  southern  portion  of  the 
Malay  Peninsula  are  typical  examples  of  the  former 
stock,  their  average  stature  is  slightly  above  the  pygmy 
limit,  but  they  need  not  detain  us  longer  as  they  belong 
to  a  different  race  of  mankind  from  the  woolly-haired 
stock.  It  may  be  mentioned  however  that  cymotrichous 
(curly-haired),  dolichocephalic  (narrow-headed),  dark- 
skinned  peoples  of  very  short  stature,  racially  akin  to  the 
Sakai,  have  been  found  in  East  Sumatra  and  in  Celebes 
(Toala)  more  or  less  mixed  with  alien  blood ;  and  quite 
recently  Moszkowski,  as  will  be  mentioned  later,  has 
suggested  that  the  islands  of  Geelvink  Bay,  Netherlands 
New  Guinea,  were  originally  inhabited  by  the  same  stock. 
All  these  peoples  together  with  the  Vedda  and  some 
jungle  tribes  of  the  Deccan  are  now  regarded  as  remnants 
of  a  once  widely  distributed  race  to  which  the  term  Pre- 
Dravidian  has  been  applied ;  it  is  also  believed  by  many 
students  that  the  chief  element  in  the  Australians  is  of 
similar  origin. 

(ii.)  For  a  long  time  it  has  been  known  that  there  are 
three  groups  of  ulotrichous  (woolly-haired),  brachy- 
cephalic  (broad- headed),  dark-skinned,  pygmy  peoples 
inhabiting  respectively  the  Andaman  Islands,  the  Malay 
Peninsula  and  the  Philippines ;  to  this  race  the  name 
Negrito  is  universally  applied.  We  can  now  include  in 
it  a  fourth   element   from   New  Guinea.     The  physical 


APPENDIX  B 


305 


characters  of  these  several  groups  may  be  summarised  as 
follows : 

1.  The  xA.NDAMANESE,  wlio  are  sometimes  erroneously 
called  Mincopies,  inhabit  the  Andaman  Islands  in 
the  Bay  of  Bengal.  Their  head  hair  is  extremely 
frizzly  (woolly),  fine  in  texture,  lustreless  and  seldom 
more  than  two  or  three  inches  long,  or  five  inches  when 
untwisted,  its  colour  varies  between  black,  greyish 
black,  and  sooty,  the  last  perhaps  predominating.  Hair 
only  occasionally  grows  on  the  face  and  then  but 
scantil}'.  There  is  little  or  no  hair  over  the  surface  of 
the  body.  The  skin  has  several  shades  of  colour  between 
bronze  or  dark  copper,  sooty,  and  black,  the  predomi- 
nating colour  being  a  dull  leaden  hue  like  that  of  a  black- 
leaded  stove.  The  average  stature  of  48  males  is  i'492  m. 
(4  ft.  io|  ins.),  the  extremes  being  1-365  m.  (4  ft.  5|  ins.) 
and  1-632  m.  (5  ft.  ^\  ins.).  The  head  is  moderately 
brachycephalic,  the  average  cranial  index  {i.e.  the  ratio 
of  the  breadth  to  the  length,  the  length  being  taken  as 
100)  in  male  skulls  is  81,  thus  the  cephalic  index  of  the 
living  would  be  about  83.  The  features  may  be  described 
as  :  face  broad  at  the  cheek-bones ;  eyes  prominent  ; 
nose  much  sunken  at  the  root,  straight  and  small ;  lips 
full  but  not  everted;  chin  small;  the  jaws  do  not 
project. 

2.  The  Semang  live  in  the  central  region  of  the 
Malay  Peninsula,  some  of  them  are  known  under  the 
names  of  Udai,  Pangan,  Hami  and  Seman.  The  hair 
of  the  head  is  short,  universally  woolly,  and  black. 
Skeat  says  it  is  of  a  brownish  black,  not  a  bluish  black 
like  that  of  the  Malays,  and  Martin  alludes  to  a  reddish 
shimmer  when  light  falls  on  it,  but  says  there  is  not  a 
brownish  shimmer  as  in  the  Sakai.  Hair  is  rare  and 
scanty  on  face  and  body.  Skeat  describes  the  skiji 
colour  as  dark  chocolate  brown  approximating  in  some 
Kedah  Negritos   to  glossy   black,   and  Martin  says  the 

X 


3o6  PYGMIES  AND   PAPUANS 

skin  of  the  chest  is  dark  brown  with  reddish  tinges, 
while  that  of  the  face  is  mainly  dark  brown,  the  re- 
mainder being  medium  brown,  with  reddish  or  pure 
brown  tinges.  The  data  for  the  stature  are  not  very 
satisfactory,  the  best  are  a  series  ofiy  males  by  An- 
nandale  and  Robinson,  the  average  being  i'528  m. 
(5  ft.  Oj  in.),  with  extreme,  of  i'372  m.  (4  ft.  6  ins.)  and 
I '604  m.  (5  ft.  3  ins.).  The  average  cephalic  index  is 
about  78  or  79,  the  extremes  ranging  from  about  74  to 
about  84.  The  Semang  are  thus  mesaticephalic  on  the 
average.  According  to  Skeat  the  face  is  round ;  the 
forehead  rounded,  narrow  and  projecting,  or  as  it  were 
"swollen";  the  nose  short  and  flattened,  the  nostrils 
much  distended,  the  breadth  remarkably  great,  five 
adult  males  having  an  average  nasal  index  of  ioi'2,  the 
20  measured  by  Annandale  and  Robinson  varied  from 
81  "3  to  108 "8  with  an  average  of  97 'i,  but  four  men 
measured  by  Martin  had  an  average  index  of  83  "5.  The 
cheek-bones  are  broad;  jaws  often  protrude  slightly;  lips 
not  as  a  rule  thick,  Martin  remarks  that  very  character- 
istic of  both  the  Semang  and  the  Sakai  is  the  great 
thickening  of  the  integumental  part  of  the  upper  lip, 
the  whole  mouth  region  projecting  from  the  lower  edge 
of  the  nose;  this  convexity  occurs  in  70  per  cent.,  and 
is  well  shown  in  his  photographs. 

3.  The  Aeta  live  in  the  mountainous  districts  of 
the  larger  islands  and  in  some  of  the  smaller  islands 
of  the  Philippines.  It  is  convenient  to  retain  this  name 
for  the  variously  named  groups  of  Philippine  Negritos, 
many  of  whom  show  admixture  with  other  peoples. 
The  hair  of  the  head  is  universally  woolly  except  when 
mixture  may  be  suspected  or  is  known ;  Reed  says  it  is 
uniform^  of  a  dirty  black  colour,  sometimes  sunburnt 
on  the  top  to  reddish  brown ;  Worcester  describes  it  as 
usually  black  but  it  may  be  reddish  brown,  and  Meyer  as 
a  dark  seal-brown  to  black.     Reed  says  that  the  beard  is 


APPENDIX   B  307 

very  scanty  but  all  adult  males  have  some  and  that 
there  is  very  little  body  hair,  but  Worcester  states  that 
the  men  often  have  abundant  beards  and  a  thick  growth 
of  hair  on  the  arms,  chest  and  legs.  The  skin  is  de- 
scribed as  being  of  a  dark  chocolate  brown,  rather  than 
black,  with  a  yellowish  tinge  on  the  exposed  parts 
(Reed),  sooty  black  (Sawyer),  or  dark,  sooty  brown 
(Worcester).  The  average  stature  of  48  men  is  1-463  m. 
(4  ft.  9.\  ins.),  ranging  from  1-282  m.  (4  ft.  2\  ins.)  to 
1-6  m.  (5  ft.  3  ins.),  but  some  of  these  were  not  pure 
breeds  (Reed)  ;  other  observations  also  show  a  con- 
siderable range  in  height.  The  cephalic  index  of  16 
males  averages  82-2,  ranging  from  78-8  to  92-3,  ten 
range  between  80  and  85  (Reed).  Features:  typically 
the  nose  is  broad,  flat,  bridgeless,  with  prominent 
arched  al«  and  nostrils  invariably  visible  from  the  front. 
Of  76  persons  measured  by  Reed  4  males  and  3 
females  had  nasal  indices  below  89,  10  and  3  of  90-99, 
20  and  13  of  100-109,  7  and  7  of  110-119,  6  and  3  above 
120 ;  the  median  of  the  males  is  102,  the  extremes  being 
83-3  and  125,  the  median  of  the  females  is  105,  their 
extremes  being  79-5  and  140-7 ;  in  other  words  they  are 
extremely  platyrhine.  The  eyes  are  round.  The  lips 
are  moderately  thick,  but  not  protruding.  A  somewhat 
pronounced  convexity  is  sometimes  seen  between  the 
upper  lip  and  the  nose  in  the  photographs  of  Meyer's 
and  Folkmar's  Albums.  Meyer  says  the  projecting  jaw 
gives  an  ape-like  appearance  to  the  face,  but  Reed  says 
the  Acta  have  practically  no  prognathism,  a  statement 
which  is  borne  out  by  his  and  Folkmar's  photographs. 

/  4.  The  discovery  of  pygmies  in  Netherlands  New  Guinea 
by  the  Expedition  has  drawn  public  attention  to  a 
problem  of  perennial  interest  to  ethnologists.  Nearly 
twenty-five  years  ago  Sir  William  Flower  stated,  "  that 
it  (the  Negrito  race)  has  contributed  considerably  to  form 
the   population  of  New  Guinea  is  unquestionable.     In 


3o8  PYGMIES  AND  PAPUANS 

many  parts  of  that  great  island,  small  round-headed 
tribes  live  more  or  less  distinct  from  the  larger  and 
longer-headed  people  who  make  up  the  bulk  of  the 
population."  (Lecture  at  the  Royal  Institution,  April 
13,  1888,  reprinted  in  Essays  on  Museums,  1898,  p.  302.) 
No  further  information  is  given,  nor  are  his  authorities 
mentioned.  Perhaps  he  was  alluding  to  the  following 
statement  by  de  Quatrefages,  "  L'extension  des  Negritos 
en  Melanesie  est  bien  plus  considerable.  Ici  leurs  tribus 
sont  melees  et  juxtaposees  a  celles  des  Papouas  probable- 
ment  dans  toute  la  Nouvelle  Guinee  "  (Rev.  d'Ethn.,  1882, 
p.  185)  ;  subsequently  he  wrote,  "  La  confusion  regret- 
table (namely  the  confusion  of  the  brachycephalic 
Negrito-Papuans  with  the  dolichocephalic  Papuans,  of 
which  Earl,  Wallace,  Meyer  and  others  have  been  guilty) 
est  cause  que  Ton  n'a  pas  recherche  les  traits  differentiels 
qui  peuvent  distinguer  les  Negritos-Papous  des  vrais 
Papouas  au  point  de  vue  de  I'etat  social,  des  moeurs,  des 
croyances,  des  industries."  [Les  Pygmees,  1887,  p.  97, 
English  Translation,  1895,  p.  62.)  Dr.  A.  B.  Meyer, 
from  whose  essay  these  quotations  have  been  taken, 
adds,  *'  No,  the  confusion  has  not  been  in  this  case  in 
the  heads  of  the  travellers ;  a  Negritic  race,  side  by  side 
with  the  Papuan  race,  nobody  has  been  able  to  discover, 
just  because  it  does  not  exist,  and  it  does  not  exist 
because  the  Papuan  race,  in  spite  of  its  variability,  is  on 
the  one  hand  a  uniform  race,  and  on  the  other  as  good 
as  identical  with  the  Negritos."  [The  Distribution  of  the 
Negritos,  1899,  p.  85.)  When  reviewing  this  essay  in 
Nature  (Sept.  7, 1899,  p.  433),  I  stated  that  I  was  inclined 
to  adopt  the  view  that  the  various  types  exhibited  by 
the  natives  of  New  Guinea  "point  to  a  crossing  of  dif- 
ferent elements,"  and  do  not  "  simply  reveal  the  varia- 
bility of  the  race,"  as  Dr.  Meyer  provisionally  believed. 
While  agreeing  with  Dr.  Meyer  that  the  "  different  con- 
ditions of  existence  "   (p.  80)  in  New  Guinea  probably 


APPENDIX  B  309 

have  reacted  on  the  physical  characters  of  the  natives 
(about  which,  however,  we  have  extremely  little  precise 
information),  we  have  now  sufficient  evidence  to  prove 
that  the  indigenous  or  true  Papuan  population  has  been 
modified  in  places  by  intrusions  from  elsewhere,  and  of 
late  years  data  have  been  accumulating  which  point  to 
the  existence  of  a  pygmy  population.     Shortly  before  his 
death,  Dr.  Meyer  drew  my  attention  to  a  more  recent 
statement  of  his  views,  in  which  he  says,  "Although  I 
formerly    stated    (Negritos,   p.    87)   that    the    question 
whether  the  Papuans,  i.e.  the  inhabitants  of  New  Guinea,  - 
are  a  uniform  race  wdth  a  wide  range  of  variation  or  a 
mixed  race  is  not  yet  ripe  for  pronouncement,  I  am  now 
more  inclined,  after  Mr.  Ray's  discovery  of  the  Papuan 
Hnguistic  family,  to  look  upon  them  as  a  mixed  race  of 
j^  *  Negritos  '  and  Malays  in  the  wider  sense.     I  am  eagerly 
looking  forward  to  the  exploration  of  the  interior  of  that 
great  island,  for  may  it  not  be  possible  there  to  discover 
the  Negrito  element  in  that  old  and  more  constant  form 
in  which  it  persists  in  the  Philippines,  Andamans,  and  in 
Malakka."      (Globus,  xciv.,    1908,  p.    192.)      This  later 
view  appears  to  me  to  be  less  tenable  than  his  earher 
one,  as  it  is  difficult  to  see  how  a  mixture  of  pygmy, 
woolly-haired  brachycephals  with  short,  straight-haired 
brachycephals    (Malays)   could   give  rise  to    the  taller, 
woolly-haired  dolichocephalic  Papuans. 

The  racial  history  of  New  Guinea  has  proved  to  be 
unexpectedly  complicated.  We  are  now  justified  in 
recognising  at  least  two  indigenous  elements,  the  Negrito 
and  Papuan ;  the  effect  of  the  island  populations  to  the 
east  has  not  yet  been  determined,  but  in  the  south-west 
two  immigrations  at  least  from  Melanesia  have  taken 
place,  which,  with  Seligmann,  we  may  term  Papuo- 
Melanesian.  (Journ.  R.  Anth.  Inst.,  XXXIX.  1909, 
pp.  246,  315  ;  and  The  Melanesians  0/  Brit.  New  Guinea, 
1910.)      It    is,    however,    almost    certain    that    future 


310  PYGMIES  AND   PAPUANS 

researches  will  reveal  that  the  problem  is  not  so  simple 
as  that  just  indicated. 

Writing  in  1902,  Dr.  Weule  states  (Globus,  lxxxii. 
p.  247)  that  he  has  no  further  doubts  as  to  the  existence 
of  pygmies  in  New  Guinea,  though  it  is  not  yet  clear 
whether  they  live  in  definite  groups  or  as  scattered 
remnants  among  the  taller  peoples.  He  points  out  that 
information  as  to  the  pygmies  was  of  necessity  scanty, 
as  expeditions  had  always  followed  the  course  of  rivers 
where  encounter  with  them  might  least  be  expected, 
since  they  are  for  the  most  part  mountain  people.—* 
Through  the  activity  of  Sir  William  MacGregor  and 
others,  British  New  Guinea  is  "the  least  unknown"  part 
of  the  whole  island ;  there  is  therefore  more  likelihood  of 
pygmy  peoples  being  discovered  in  German  or  Nether- 
lands New  Guinea,  the  latter  being  entirely  a  terra  incog- 
nita from  the  geographical  standpoint.  Dr.  Weule's 
article  contains  various  references  to  previous  literature 
on  the  pygmy  question,  and  three  photographs  of 
pygmies  from  the  middle  Ramu  are  reproduced,  which 
show  three  men  well  under  142  cm.  (4  ft.  8|  ins.)  in 
height. 

The  later  history  of  the  discovery  of  a  pygmy  sub- 
stratum in  the  population  of  parts  of  New  Guinea  is  as 
follows : —  / 

Dr.  M.  Kriegjr  had  visited  the  Sattelberg  and  the 
neighbourhood  of  Simbang  where  he  heard  reports  of 
dwarfs  from  natives,  but  no  European  had  seen  them 
(Neu  Guinea,  1899,  p.  143) ;  subsequently  Dr.  R.  Poch 
stayed  from  December  1904  to  February  1905  in  the  Kai 
area,  which  lies  inland  from  Finschhafen  in  German  New 
Guinea.  In  the  Mitt,  aiis  den  deutscheii  Schutzgehieten 
1907,  he  writes  (p.* 225):  "During  the  first  part  of  the 
time  I  remained  chiefly  on  the  Sattelberg  itself,  and 
observed  and  measured  the  various  Kai  frequenting  the 
Mission  Station.     In  them  I  became  acquainted  with  a 


APPENDIX  B  311 

mountain  tribe  entirely  different  from  the  coast  peoples 
previously  visited.  In  fifty  men  I  found  the  average 
height  to  be  152 '5  cm.  (5  ft.) ;  the  skulls  are,  as  a  rule, 
mesocephalic  to  brachycephalic.  Towards  the  coast 
(Jabim)  dolichocephaly  becomes  more  usual  and  the 
type  also  changes.  Very  small  people  are  not  in- 
frequently met  with  among  the  Kai."  Among  300  adult 
males  he  found  twelve  ranging  from  133  to  145*6  cm. 
(4  ft.  4j  ins.  to  4  ft.  gj  ins.).  "  For  the  present,"  he  adds, 
*'it  cannot  be  determined  whether  this  is  merely  a 
variation  in  stature  or  whether  we  have  here  survivals 
of  an  older  smaller  race  not  yet  entirely  merged  in  the 
Kai"  {cf.  also  Sitzungsber.  der  Anth.  Gesellschaft  in  Wien, 
1905,  pp.  40  ff.).  In  the  Zeitschr.f.  Ethnol.  xxxix.,  1907, 
p.  384,  he  states  that  on  the  north  coast  of  British  New 
Guinea  and  in  Normanby  Island  he  often  came  across  very 
small  people.  Dr.  O.  Reche,  in  describing  a  journey  up  the 
Kaiserin-Augusta  river,  says  that,  "the  population  con- 
sists of  three  clearly  distinguishable  types  or  races,  two 
of  which  have  long,  very  narrow  skulls,  and  one  a  short 
broad  skull.  Inland  from  the  river  bank  there  seems  to 
be  in  addition  to  these  a  pygmy-like  people  of  small 
growth;  at  all  events,  I  found  in  some  of  the  villages 
situated  on  the  upper  river,  among  other  skulls,  some 
which  were  remarkably  small  and  of  a  special  type,  and 
which  must  have  been  taken  from  enemies  living  further 
inland."    (Globus,  xcvii.  1910,  p.  286.) 

Neuhauss  studied  the  Sattelberg  natives  and  is  very 
certain  that  a  pygmy  element  occurs  there.  He  notes 
the  stockiness  of  certain  individuals,  who  have  a  long 
powerful  trunk  and  short  limbs,  whereas  the  Papuans 
are  lean  and  slender ;  the  shortest  man  measured  by  him 
was  I '355  m.  (4  ft.  5^  ins.).  Again,  the  cephalic  index  of 
260  Papuans  averages  76-8,  while  that  of  thirty-two  short 
individuals  averages  78"8,  and  on  the  Sattelberg  797, 
some  even  ranging  from  83-84*6.      He  also  noticed  that 


312  PYGMIES  AND  PAPUANS 

the  ears  were  short,  wide  and  without  lobe ;  the  hands 
and  feet  were  unusually  small.  Von  Luschan  draws 
attention  to  the  convexity  of  the  whole  upper  lip  area 
as  in  African  pygmies.  Neuhauss  insists  that  the 
pygmies  are  almost  merged  into  the  rest  of  the  popu- 
lation, and  that  their  low  stature  is  not  due  to  poor 
conditions.     [Zs.f.  Ethnol.  xliii.,  1911,  p.  280.) 

Dr.  M.  Moszkowski  found  that  in  Geelvink  Bay  the 
hair  is  not  always  ulotrichous  (woolly),  as  is  usual  with 
Papuans,  especially  on  Biak  and  Padeido  Islands  the  hair 
often  recalls  the  cjmiotrichous  (curly)  hair  of  Veddas. 
Other  points  of  resemblance  with  wild  tribes  of  Further 
Asia  are : — A  very  dainty  graceful  bone-structure,  small 
hands  and  feet,  relatively  short  limbs  compared  to  the 
trunk,  low  stature,  few  being  above  156  cm.  and  most 
below  150  cm.  (4  ft.  11  ins.),  and  now  and  then  the 
characteristic  convex  upper  lip  of  the  wild  tribes  (Zs.  /. 
Ethnol.  XLIII.  191 1,  pp.  317,  318).  On  these  grounds 
Moszkowski  inclines  to  think  that  the  islands  of  Geelvink 
Bay  were  originally  peopled  by  pre-Malayan  wild  tribes 
allied  to  the  Vedda,  Sakai,  Toala,  etc.,  and  thus  the 
present  population  is  the  result  of  crossing  between  these 
and  immigrant  Melanesians ;  true  Malays  came  later. 
Moszkowski  has  not  ^Tt  published  any  head  measure- 
ments of  these  interesting  people,  and  the  evidence  is  in- 
sufficient to  decide  whether  this  is  a  Pre-Dravidian  or  a 
Negrito  element  in  the  population  of  these  islands,  the 
curly  character  of  the  hair  may  be  due  as  elsewhere  in 
New  Guinea  to  racial  mixture;  the  photograph  of  a 
"Vedda-type"  from  Padeido  island  is  by  no  means 
convincing  (I.e.  p.  318). 

Finally  Guppy,  Ribbe  and  Rascher  report  the  occur- 
rence of  very  short  people  in  the  interior  of  the  larger 
islands  of  ihe  Bismarck  Archipelago  and  of  the  Solomon 
Islands ;  recently  Thurnwald  refers  to  very  small  people 
in  the  mountainous  interior  of  Bougainville  who  speak  a 


APPENDIX  B  313 

non-Melanesian  language,  one  man  from  Mari  mountain 
had  a  stature  of  1-39  m.  (4  ft.  6^  ins.).  In  the  mountains 
the  mixed  population  consists  of  types  recalling  the 
Solomon  Islanders  and  "representatives  of  a  small  short- 
legged,  broad-faced,  short-skulled,  very  hairy,  wide-nosed 
people."     [Zs.f.  Ethnol.  xlii.  1910,  p.  109.) 

Discussing  the  p^/gmies  of  Melanesia  von  Luschan  re- 
ferred in  1910  [Zs.f.  Ethnol.  XLii.,p.939)  to  bones  brought 
a  century  ago  from  the  Admiralty  Islands  which  must 
have  belonged  to  individuals  1-32-1 -35  m.  (4  ft.  4  ins.- 
4  ft.  5  ins.)  in  stature ;  it  is  unlikely  that  the  type  per- 
sists, though  Moseley  mentions  an  unusually  short  man, 
a  little  over  5  ft.  (Joum.  Anth.  Inst.  1877,  p.  384).  In 
the  collection  made  by  the  German  Marine  Expedition 
there  are  a  number  of  extremely  small  skulls  from  New 
Ireland,  which  von  Luschan  is  convinced  belong  to 
pygmies.  Finsch  brought  from  New  Britain  over  thirty 
years  ago  the  smallest  known  skull  of  a  normal  adult 
person;  it  came  from  the  S.W.  coast  of  Gazelle 
Peninsula.  Like  four  other  extremely  small  feminine 
skulls  from  New  Britain  this  one  is  dolichocephalic  (ceph. 
index  73).  Von  Luschan  is  of  opinion  that  the  small 
people  of  Melanesia  represent  an  older  stratum  of  popu- 
lation than  their  tall  neighbours. 

While  other  travellers  have  come  across  what  is  now 
accepted  as  a  pygmy  element  in  the  population,  the 
members  of  this  Expedition  have  for  the  first  time 
proved  the  existence  of  a  pygmy  people,  known  as  the 
Tapiro,  who  may  be  regarded  as  predominantly  Negritos. 
The  hair  is  short,  woolly  and  black,  but  seemed  brown 
in  two  or  three  cases,  there  is  a  good  deal  of  hair  on  the 
face  and  of  short  downy  hair  scattered  about  the  body. 
Thes^mis  of  a  lighter  colour  than  that  of  the  neighbour- 
ing Papuans,  some  individuals  being  almost  yellow.  The 
stature  averages  1-449  "^-  (4  f^-  9  ^^s-)'  ranging  from 
1-326  m.  (4  ft.  4I  ins.)  to  1-529  m.  (5  ft.  o^  in.).     The 


314  PYGMIES  AND  PAPUANS 

cephalic  index  averages  79 "5,  varying  from  66*9  to  85 "i. 
Features :  The  nose  is  straight  and  though  described  as 
"very  wide  at  the  nostrils,"  the  mean  of  the  indices  is 
only  83,  the  extremes  being  65-5  to  94.  The  eyes  are 
noticeably  larger  and  rounder  than  those  of  Papuans. 
"The  upper  lip  of  many  of  the  men  is  long  and  curiously 
convex." 

At  the  same  time  that  the  Expedition  discovered 
pygmies  in  Netherlands  New  Guinea,  Mr.  R.  W.  William- 
son was  investigating-4he  Mafulu,  a  mountain  people  on 
the  upper  waters  of  the  AngaEuhga  river  in  the  Mekeo 
District.  He  has  shown  (The  Mafttlu  Mountain  People 
of  British  New  Guinea,  1912)  that  in  all  probability  these 
and  some  neighbouring  tribes  are  a  mixture  of  Negritos, 
Papuans  and  Papuo-Melanesians.  Their  invariably 
woolly  hair  is  generally  dark  brown,  often  quite  dark, 
approaching  to  black  and  sometimes  perhaps  quite  black, 
but  frequently  it  is  lighter  and  often  not  what  we  in 
Europe  should  call  dark;  a  beard  and  moustache  are 
quite  unusual.  The  skin  is  dark  sooty-brown.  The 
average  stature  is  1*551  m.  (5  ft.  i  in.)  ranging  from 
I '47  m.  (4  ft.  10  ins.)  to  i'63  m.  (5  ft.  4  ins.).  They  are 
fairly  strong  and  muscular,  but  rather  slender  and  slight 
in  development.  The  average  cephalic  index  is  80  and 
ranges  from  747  to  86'8.  Features :  The  average  nasal 
index  is  84*3,  the  extremes  being  71-4  and  100.  The 
eyes  are  dark  brown  and  very  bright.  The  lips  are  fine 
and  delicate. 

It  is  worth  noting  that  Poch  had  in  1906  measured 

two    Fergusson   Island   men   with    statures   i'403    and 

1-425  m.  (4  ft.  7i  ins.,  4  ft.  8  ins.),  who  told  him  that  "  all 

the  people  in  that  tribe  were  as  small  or  smaller."      [Zs. 

/.  Ethnol.  XLii.  1910,  p.  941.) 

On  reading  through  the  brief  synopses  which  I  have 
given  it  is  apparent  that,  with  the  possible  exception  of 
the  Andamanese,   each  of  the   Negrito  peoples   shows 


APPENDIX  B  315 

considerable  diversity  in  its  physical  characters  and  this 
is  more  evident  when  more  detailed  accounts  and  photo- 
graphs   are    studied.      There   appears   to    be   sufficient 
evidence  to  show  that  a  very  ancient  ulotrichous,  low 
brachycephalic,  pygmy  population  once  extended  over 
the   Malay   Peninsula    and   a   great   part    (at   least)   of 
Melanesia  and  New  Guinea,  but  the  existing  groups  do 
not  appear  to  be  homogeneous  judging  from  the  diversity 
in  stature,  head  index  and  nasal  index.     Stature,  as  has 
already  been  stated,  is  always  recognised  as  subject  to 
considerable  variation,  but  the  bulk  of  the  measurements 
of  these  peoples  fall  below  1-5  m.,  and  therefore  indicate 
a  predominant  very  short  population.     The  head  indices 
mainly  show  low  brachycephaly ;  the  occasional  very  low 
indices  may  be  due  either  to  a  Pre-Dra vidian  mixture  or 
in  New  Guinea,  at  all  events,  to  a  Papuan  strain.     The 
former  existence  of  a  Pre-Dravidian  stock  in  New  Guinea 
is  highly  probable,  nor  must  it  be  overlooked  that  there 
may  have  been  a  hitherto  undescribed  pygmy  or  very 
short  dolichocephalic  ulotrichous  stock  in  New  Guinea 
and  Melanesia.    The  nasal  index  of  these  Negrito  peoples 
is  very  suggestive  of  racial  complexity.     Judging   from 
photographs,     in    the   absence    of    measurements,    the 
Andamanese  have  by  no  means  a  broad  nose,   and   a 
mesorhine  index  is  found  in  all  the  other  groups,  some 
of  the  Tapiro  and  Mafulu  are  even  leptorhine.     A  con- 
stantly recurring  feature  is  the  convex  upper  lip,  but 
that  also  occurs  among  the  Sakai.     The  problem  now  is 
to  determine  what  foreign  elements  have  modified  these 
pygmies,  and  whether  the  Negrito  stock  itself  will  not 
have  to  be  subdivided  into  at  least  two  groups. 

The  Negritos  have  certain  cultural  characters  more 
or  less  in  common,  some  of  which  differentiate  them 
from  their  neighbours.  There  is  very  little  artificial 
deformation  of  the  person.  The  Tapiro  and  Mafulu 
alone  do  not  tattoo  or  scarify  the  skin ;  Skeat  says  that 


3i6  PYGMIES  AND   PAPUANS 

the  Semang  "  do  not  appear  as  a  race  to  tattoo  or 
scarify,"  and  the  Aeta  scarify  only  occasionally.  The 
nasal  septum  is  not  pierced  for  a  nose-stick  by  the 
Andamanese  and  Aeta  nor  among  the  purer  Semang 
tribes,  but  the  Tapiro  and  Mafulu  do  so.  The  Semang 
women  possess  numerous  bamboo  combs  which  are 
engraved  with  curious  designs  of  a  magical  import, 
similar  combs  are  possessed  by  nearly  every  Aeta  man 
and  woman.    The  Andamanese  have  no  combs. 

With  regard  to  clothing,  the  male  Andamanese  are 
nude,  the  females  wear  a  small  apron  of  leaves  or  a  single 
leaf,  but  one  tribe,  the  Jarawa,  go  nude.  The  male 
Semang  frequently  wear  a  loin-cloth,  or  simply  leaves 
retained  by  a  string  girdle,  sometimes  the  women  wear 
this  too  or  a  fringed  girdle  made  of  the  long  black  strings 
of  a  fungus,  but  more  usually  a  waist-cloth.  The  Aeta 
men  wear  a  loin-cloth  and  the  women  a  waist-cloth. 
The  Mafulu  men  and  women  wear  a  perineal  band  of 
bark  cloth,  while  the  Tapiro  nien  wear  a  unique  gourd 
penis-sheath.  A  gourd  or  calabash  is  also  worn  by  men 
on  the  north  coast  of  New  Guinea,  but  not  further  west 
than  Cape  Bonpland,  in  this  case  the  hole  is  in  the  side 
and  not  at  the  end  as  among  the  Tapiro. 

The  Negritos  are  collectors  and  hunters,  and  never 
cultivate  the  soil  unless  they  have  been  modified  by 
contact  with  more  advanced  peoples. 

The  Andamanese  make  three  kinds  of  simple  huts  on 
the  ground  and  large  communal  huts  are  sometimes 
built.  The  Semang  construct  "bee-hive"  and  long 
communal  huts  and  weather  screens  similar  to  those  of 
the  Andamanese.  They  also  erect  tree  shelters,  but 
direct  evidence  is  very  scanty  that  pure  Semang  inhabit 
huts  with  a  flooring  raised  on  piles  ;  they  sleep  on  bamboo 
platforms.  The  Aeta  usually  make  very  simple  huts 
sometimes  with  a  raised  bamboo  sleeping  platform  inside. 
The  pile  dwellings  of  the  Tapiro  have  evidently  been 


APPENDIX   B  317 

copied  from  those  of  other  tribes  in  the  interior.  Tlic 
Mafulu  build  a  different  kind  of  pile  dwelling  which  has 
a  peculiar  hood-hke  porch. 

All  the  Negritos  have  the  bow  and  arrow.  The  Great 
Andamanese  bow  is  peculiar  while  that  of  the  Little 
Andamanese  appears  to  resemble  that  of  the  Semang. 
The  Great  Andamanese  and  the  Tapiro  have  very  long 
bows.  Harpoon  arrows  with  iron  points  are  used  by  the 
Andamanese  and  Aeta,  the  arrows  of  the  Andamanese, 
Semang  and  Aeta  are  nocked,  but  only  those  of  the  two 
latter  are  feathered.  No  nocked  or  feathered  arrows 
occur  in  New  Guinea.  Only  the  Semang  and  Aeta  are 
known  to  poison  their  arrows,  and  they  may  have 
borrowed  the  idea  from  the  poisoned  darts  of  the  blow- 
pipe.    Some  Semang  have  adopted  the  blow-pipe. 

The  Andamanese  appear  to  be  one  of  the  very  few 
people  who  possess  fire  but  do  not  know  how  to  make 
it  afresh.  The  Semang  usually  make  fire  by  "rubbing 
together  short  blocks  of  wood,  bamboo  or  cane.  A 
common  method  consists  in  passing  a  rattan  line  round 
the  portion  of  a  dried  branch,  and  holding  the  branch 
down  by  the  feet  whilst  the  hne  is  rapidly  worked  to 
and  fro  with  the  hands."  Flint  and  steel  are  also  used. 
(The  Sakai  employ  similar  methods.)  (Skeat  and  Blagden, 
I,  pp.  111-114,  119.)  Among  the  Aeta  flint  and  steel 
have  almost  replaced  the  old  method  of  making  fire  by 
one  piece  of  split  bamboo  being  sawed  rapidly  across 
another  piece.  Semper  collected  from  Negritos  of  N.E. 
Luzon,  a  split  stick,  bark  fibre  and  a  strip  of  rattan 
used  in  fire-making,  these  are  described  and  figured  by 
A.  B.  Meyer  (Publ.  der  K.  Ethn.  Mus.  zu.  Dresden,  ix, 
Negritos,  p.  5,  pi.  11,  fig.  7  a-c).  It  is  interesting  to  find 
that  the  Tapiro  employ  the  same  method  and  apparatus 
(p.  200).  Thus  there  occurs  among  Negritos  in  the 
Philippines  and  New  Guinea  the  method  of  making 
fire  by  partly  spUtting  a   dry  stick,  keeping   the   ends 


3i8  PYGMIES  AND   PAPUANS 

open  by  inserting  a  piece  of  wood  or  a  stone  in  the  cleft, 
stuffing  some  tinder  into  the  narrow  part  of  the  sht  and 
then  drawing  rapidly  a  strip  of  rattan  to  and  fro  across 
this  spot  till  a  spark  ignites  the  tinder.  Poch  found  it 
among  the  Poum,  dwelling  in  the  mountains  inland  from 
the  Kai  {Geog.  Jul.  xxx,  1907,  p.  612,  and  Mitt.  Anth.  Ges. 
in  Wien,  xxxvii.  1907,  p.  59,  fig.  2,  3).  Precisely  the 
same  method  was  described  by  the  Rev.  Dr.  W.  G.  Lawes 
who  found  it  among  the  Koiari  of  Tabure  on  Mt.  Wari- 
rata  [Proc.  R.  Geog.  Soc.  v,  1883,  p.  357)-  Finsch 
collected  the  apparatus  from  the  same  people  (Ann. 
des  K.K.  natnrhist.  Hofmns.  in  Wien,  ill,  1888,  p.  323  ; 
Leo  Frobenius,  The  Childhood  of  Man,  1909,  fig.  313, 
but  Frobenius  is  mistaken  in  representing  the  rattan 
as  going  twice  round  the  stick).  Dr.  H.  0.  Forbes  had 
found  it  at  Ubumkara  on  the  Naoro,  also  in  the  Central 
Division  (P.R.G.S.  xii.  1890,  p.  562).  Mr.  C.  A.  W. 
Monckton  noticed  it  in  1906  among  the  Kambisa  tribe, 
in  the  valley  of  the  Chirima,  Mt.  Albert  Edward  (Ann. 
Rep.  Brit.  New  Guinea,  1907).  Poch  suggests  that  N. 
von  Miklucho-Maclay  was  wrong  in  thinking  that  the 
strip  was  rubbed  in  the  split  of  a  stick  (I.e.  p.  61) ; 
this  is  the  earUest  Papuan  record  (1872). 

From  the  above  account  it  is  possible  that  the  split 
stick  and  rattan  strip  method  of  fire-making  may  be  a 
criterion  of  Negrito  culture,  but  it  should  be  noted  that  the 
stick  is  not  reported  as  split  among  the  Semang,  and  that 
the  unsplit  stick  is  found  among  the  Sakai  and  the  Kayans 
and  Kenyahs  of  Sarawak  who  are  not  Negritos.  Also  the 
split  stick  is  found  at  several  spots  in  the  mountainous 
interior  of  the  south-east  peninsula  of  New  Guinea  where 
Negrito  influence  has  not  yet  been  recorded,  but  Mr. 
WilHamson's  observations  are  very  suggestive  in  this 
respect.  Poch  (I.e.  p.  62)  points  out  that  this  method  is 
nearest  akin  to  "  fire-sawing  with  bamboo,  both  in 
principle  and  distribution,"  of  which  he  gives  details.     A 


APPENDIX   B  319 

somewhat  similar  method  is  that  described  by  W.  E. 
Roth.  A  spHt  hearth-stick  is  held  by  the  feet,  but  fire 
is  made  by  sawing  with  another  piece  of  wood,  a  device 
which  appears  to  be  widely  spread  in  Queensland  and 
occurs  also  on  the  Lachlan  River,  N.S.W.  (N.  Queensland 
Ethnogr.  Bull.  7,  1904,  sect.  9,  pi.  11.  figs.  17,  18). 

So  far  as  is  known  the  social  structure  of  the  Negritos 
is  very  simple.  Among  the  Andamanese  there  is  no 
division  of  the  community  into  two  moieties,  no  clan 
system  nor  totemism,  neither  has  a  classificatory  system 
of  kinship  been  recorded;  the  social  unit  appears  to  be 
the  family,  and  the  power  of  the  head-man  is  very 
limited.  Our  knowledge  concerning  the  Semang  and 
Acta  is  extremely  imperfect  but  they  probably  resemble 
the  Andamanese  in  these  points.  The  Andamanese  and 
Semang  are  strictly  monogamous,  polygyny  is  allowed 
among  the  Acta,  but  monogamy  prevails.  The  only 
restriction  at  all  on  marriage  appears  to  be  the  prohibition 
of  marriage  between  near  kindred,  and  divorce  is  very 
rare.  All  bury  their  dead,  but  it  is  considered  by  the 
Andamanese  more  complimentary  to  place  the  dead  on  a 
platform  which  is  generally  built  in  a  large  tree,  and  the 
more  honourable  practice  of  the  Semang  is  to  expose 
the  dead  in  trees.  The  Mafulu  bury  ordinary  people, 
but  the  corpses  of  chiefs  are  placed  in  an  open  box  either 
on  a  platform  or  in  the  fork  of  a  knid  of  fig  tree. 
Nothing  is  known  about  the  social  life  of  the  Tapiro, 
and  Williamson  says,  "The  very  simple  ideas  of^  the 
Mafulu,  as  compared  with  the  Papuans  and  Melanesians, 
in  matters  of  social  organization,  implements,  arts  and 
crafts,  religion  and  other  things  may  well,  I  think,  be 
associated  with  a  primitive  Negrito  origin"  (I.e.  p.  30^)- 


320  PYGMIES  AND   PAPUANS 

SHORT   BIBLIOGRAPHY. 

This  is  not  the  place  to  attempt  to  give  a  record  of  the  \xry  voluminous 
bibhograph}^  of  the  Negritos,  and  most  of  the  works  here  recorded  are  those  from 
which  the  foregoing  facts  have  been  collected.  Books  referred  to  in  the  text  are, 
with  one  or  two  exceptions,  not  here  repeated. 

The  General  Question. 

DanieUi,  G.,  "  Studi  di  Antropogeografia  generclle."  Memorie  Geografiche, 
N.  i8.     Vol.  VI.  1912. 

Flower,  W.  H.  The  Pygmy  Races  of  Men.  Royal  Inst.  Lecture,  1SS8,  re- 
printed in  Essays  on  Museums,  1S98. 

Lapicque,  L.     "  La  Race  Negrito."     Ann.  de  Geographic,  1896,  p.  407. 

Meyer,  A.  B.  The  Distribution  of  the  Negritos.  1899  ;  translation  with  additions 
from  Puhlikaiionen  d.  K.  Ethn.  Mus.  zu  Dresden,  IX.  1893. 

Quatrefages,  A.  de.     The  Pygmies,  1S95.     (English  Translation). 

Schmidt,  W.  Die  Stelluvg  der  Pygmiienvolker  hi  der  Entwicklungsgeschichte  des 
Menschen,  1910. 

Pater  W.  Schmidt  has  gone  into  the  whole  pygmy  question  with  great 
thoroughness.  He  extends  his  comparison  to  the  African  pygmies 
(Negrillos),  between  whom  and  the  Asiatic  pygmies  he  attempts  to  prove  a 
connection  through  Southern  India.  Emphasis  is  laid  on  the  "  infantile  " 
physical  characters  of  both  African  and  Asiatic  pygmies  and  the  extremely 
primitive  features  of  their  culture.  He  is  inclined  to  regard  the  Pre- 
Dravidian  Vedda,  Senoi  and  Toala  as  of  mixed  pygmy  origin,  finding 
support  for  this  theory  in  the  proximity  of  the  Senoi  to  the  Semang  in  the 
Malay  Peninsula.  The  eastward  extension  of  the  pygmies  into  Melanesia 
and  New  Guinea  is  not  dealt  with. 

Tyson,  E.  A  Philological  Essay  concerning  the  Pygmies  of  the  Ancients,  1699. 
Edited  by  B.  C.  A.  Windle,  1894. 

The  Andamauese. 

Dobson,  G.  E.,  "  On  the  Andamans  and  Andamanese."  J  own.  A  nth.  Inst. 
IV.  1S75,  p.  457. 

Flower,  W.  H.,  "On  the  Osteology  and  Affinities  of  the  Natives  of  the 
Andaman  Islands,"  J.A.I.  IX.  1879,  p.  108,  cf.  also  X.,  p.  124,  XIV.,  p.  115, 
XVIII.,  p.  73. 

Lane  Fox,  A.,  "  Observations  on  Mr.  Man's  Collection  of  Andamanese  and 
Nicobarese  Objects,"  J. A. I.,  VII.  1877,  p.  434. 

Man,  E.  H.,  "  On  the  Aboriginal  Inhabitants  of  the  Andaman  Islands,"  J.A.I. 
XII.  1882-3,  pp.  69,  117,  327,  cf.  also  VII.  p.  105,  XI.  p.  26S. 

Portman,  M.  V.,  "  Notes  on  the  Andamanese,"  J.A.I.,  XXV.  1S96,  p.  361. 

The  Semang. 
Skeat,  W.  W.,  and  Blagdcn,  C.  O.,  Pagan  Races  of  the  Malay  Peninsula,  1906. 
Martin,  R.,  Die  Inlandstdmme  der  Malayischen  Halbinsel,  1905. 
Annandalc,  N.,  and    Robinson,    H.    C.,    Fasciculi   Malayensis,  Anthropology. 

Part  I,  1903,  p.  105. 

The  Acta. 
Folkmar,  D.,  Album  of  Philippine  Types,  Manila,  1904. 
Koeze,  G.  A.,  "  Crania   Ethnica  Philippinica,"  Publicatien  uit  's  rijks  cihno- 

graphisch  Miiseum,  Serie  II.  No.  3,  Haarlem,  1901-1904. 
Meyer,  A.  B.,  Alb^im  of  Filipino  Types,  1SS5,  Vol.  II..  1891,  and  Vol.  III.,  1904, 

with  photographs  taken  by  Dr.  A.  Schadcnberg. 
Meyer,  A.  B.,  ''  Die  Philippinen,  II.,  Negritos,"  Publikationen  dcs  K.  Ethnogr. 

Mus.  zu  Dresden,  IX.  1S93  (and  cf.  J. A. I.,  XXV.  p.  17::). 
Reed,  W.  A.,  "  Negritos  of  Zambales,"  Department  of  the  Interior,  Ethnological 

Survey  Publications,  II.  Manila,  1904. 
Sawyer,  F.  H.,  The  Inhabitants  of  the  Philippines,  1900. 
Worcester,   Dean  C,   "  The  Non-Christian  Tribes  of  Northern  Luzon,"    The 

Philippine  Journal  of  Science,  I.  1906,  p.  791. 


APPENDIX  B 


321 


Measurements  of  22  Tapiro  Pvgmies  (Males). 


1 
•3 

§ 

bo 

i 

1 

■3 
1 

to 

^ 

^ 

1 

Indices. 

c 

•a 

5 

i 

S 
6 

1 

"o 

2 

^ 
« 

3. 

1 

1 

1 

i 

i 

a 
1 

^ 

K 

0 

> 

X 

K 

fa 

m 

fa 

^ 

^ 

■^ 

w 

fa 

-/i 

17 

1527 

80-5 

13-0 

18-2 

14-1 

13-6 

12-7 

IO-7 

s-i 

3-9 

3-4 

77-5 

787 

76-5 

18 

148-0 

77-5 

12-7 

17-7 

13-8 

13-4 

12-7 

lo-o 

4-7 

4-1 

2-8 

78-0 

74-6 

87-2 

19 

142-5 

71-0 

1 1 -2 

18-1 

13-9 

13-1 

in 

II-5 

5-5 

3-6 

3-4 

76-8 

87-8 

65-5 

20 

142-1 

71-5 

iro 

17-2 

ri-5 

13-0 

12-0 

IO-3 

4-8 

4-1 

3-1 

66-9 

79-5 

85-4 

21 

I47"9 

78-0 

12-6 

17-4 

13-7 

12-5 

9-3 

1 1-7 

6-0 

4-5 

3-2 

7S-7 

93-6 

75-0 

140-2 

74-0 

11-2 

17-7 

14-2 

13-0 

10-7 

10-6 

S'2 

4-2 

3-4 

8o-2 

81-5 

80-8 

23 

145-4 

74-5 

12-9 

17-8 

14-3 

13-6 

12-S 

10-6 

4-5 

3-9 

3-3 

80-3 

77-9 

86-7 

24 

152-9 

78-5 

I2-I 

17-7 

14-3 

12-7 

ii-i 

11-6 

5-2 

4-4 

3-2 

80-8 

91-3 

84-6 

25 

138-9 

74-5 

12-6 

16-7 

14- 1 

11-8 

9-6 

10-4 

5-0 

4-4 

2-8 

84-4 

88-1 

88-0 

26 

149-0 

72-7 

12-6 

17-4 

136 

12-3 

II-8 

IO-7 

4-8 

3-9 

3-2 

78-2 

87-0 

8i-3 

27 

148-2 

8i-zi 

II-3 

18-5 

13-9 

12-8 

ii-o 

II-3 

5-2 

4-4 

3-2 

75-1 

88-3 

84-6 

28 

132-6 

72-S 

12-8 

17-5 

14-7 

128 

9-8 

11-2 

5-1 

4-1 

3-0 

84-0 

87-5 

8o-4 

29 

150-7 

79-5 

13-6 

17-4 

14-8 

13-6 

12-3 

ii-i 

5-5 

4-4 

3'4 

85-1 

8i-6 

8o-o 

30 

148-8 

74-0 

13-0 

i8-i 

14- 1 

12-6 

iro 

10-6 

4-9 

4-4 

3-3 

77-9 

84-1 

89-8 

31 

150-1 

79-0 

i3'5 

17-8 

14-8 

13-1 

iro 

12-2 

5-5 

4-4 

3-1 

83-2 

93-1 

8o-o 

32 

139-8 

76-5 

12-5 

I7'4 

14-7 

13-4 

10-8 

10-4 

5*5 

4-1 

3"i 

84-5 

77-6 

74-6 

33 

134-3 

71-8 

12-2 

16-2 

13-4 

13-2 

11-7 

10-6 

4-8 

4-1 

3-1 

82-7 

80-3 

85-4 

34 

150-6 

78-0 

12-8 

18-2 

14-6 

13-8 

11-4 

II-6 

5-9 

5-0 

3-6 

80-2 

84-1 

84-8 

35 

144-2 

79-0 

12-0 

17-8 

13-7 

13-5 

12-8 

11-2 

4-8 

4-1 

3-1 

77-0 

83-0 

85-4 

36 

144-8 

777 

II-I 

18-1 

13-9 

13-0 

12-2 

ii-o 

5-1 

4-8 

3-3 

76-8 

84-6 

94-1 

37 

140-5 

71-3 

12-2 

18-4 

14-6 

13-0 

97 

12-5 

5-5 

3-9 

3-3 

80-7 

96-2 

70-9 

38 

142-8 

79-0 

11-5 

i8-i 

14-2 

13-4 

11-9 

I2-I 

6-1 

4*3 

3-0   78-5 

90-3 

70-5 

APPENDIX   C 

NOTES   ON   LANGUAGES   IN  THE    EAST   OF 
NETHERLANDS   NEW   GUINEA 

By  SIDNEY  H.  RAY,  M.A. 

I.   INTRODUCTION 

In  considering  the  languages  of  Netherlands  New  Guinea 
it  is  convenient  to  divide  the  territory  into  six  geographical 
divisions.    These  are : — 

1.  The  North-western    Coast   and   Islands   (Waigiu, 

Salawati,  and  Misol). 

2.  The  Western  shore  of  Gaelvink  Bay  and  the  islands 

adjacent  (Mefor,  Biak,  and  J  obi). 

3.  The  Peninsula  of  Kumava  (Orange  Nassau)  with 

the  islands  between  Ceram  and  the  Ke  group. 

4.  The   Southern   and   Eastern   Shores    of   Geelvink 

Bay. 

5.  The  North  Coast  from  Kurudu  Islands  to  Hum- 

boldt Bay. 

6.  The  South-eastern  Coast  from  Kamrau  Inlet   to 

the  Bensbach  River  on  the  boundary  between 
Netherlands  and  British  territory. 
The  present  notice  only  refers  to  languages  in  the 
three  last  of  these  divisions. 

At  the  Western  end  of  the  South  shore  of  Geelvink 
Bay  is  the  district  of  Wandammen,  of  which  the  language 
is  fairly  well  known.  For  this  we  have  a  vocabulary 
with  grammatical  examples  (9),*  and  also  for  Windessi, 

*  The  numerals  in  brackets  refer  to  the  list  of  authorities  prefixed  to  the 
comparative  vocabulary. 


APPENDIX   C  323 

which  is  the  same  language,  a  mission  text-book.  East- 
ward from  Wandammen  the  numerals  only  are  recorded 
(7),  but  at  the  Southern  point  of  the  Bay,  in  the  district 
around  Jamur  Lake  we  have  the  collections  made  by 
Van  der  Sande  during  the  Wichmann  Expedition  of  1903 
(8).  He  gives  a  vocabulary  of  Angadi,  an  island  in  the 
Jamur  Lake,  some  words  of  the  Nagramadu  dialect  on 
the  North-west,  and  the  numerals  of  Goreda  on  the  South 
of  the  lake.  The  languages  of  the  Western  Shore  of 
Geelvink  Bay  are  represented  only  by  numerals  (7)  but 
there  is  more  information  of  the  language  of  Pauwi  at  the 
mouth  of  the  Wambcram  or  Amberno  or  Mamberamo 
River,  where  F.  van  Braam  Morris  collected  a  vocabulary 
published  by  Robide  van  der  Aa  in  1885  (6).  This  was 
considered  faulty  by  de  Clercq.* 

Westward  along  the  Northern  coast  very  little 
linguistic  material  is  available,  and  the  few  words  re- 
corded show  great  differences.  The  places  of  which  the 
speech  is  known  are,  on  the  mainland :  Takar,  Tarfia  and 
Tana  Merah,  and  on  the  islands  :  Liki  (in  the  Kumamba 
Group),  Moar  (called  also  Wakde),  Masimasi  and  Jamna 

(4. 5). 

For  the  region  about  Humboldt  Bay  we  have  short 
vocabularies  of  Jotafa  by  various  collectors,  and  a  fuller 
one  by  G.  L.  Bink  (2),  also  Sentani  lists  by  P.  E.  Moolen- 
burg  (3)  and  van  der  Sande  (8).  Moolenburg  also  gives 
a  list  from  Seka,  West  of  the  Bay. 

For  the  Southern  shore  of  Netherlands  New  Guinea, 
we  have  nothing  but  vocabularies,  none  of  very  large 
extent,  the  most  extensive  being  that  of  Merauke  in  the 
extreme  West  (15)  which  has  also  been  ably  discussed  b}^ 
Dr.  N.  Adriani.  f 

Commencing  at  Kamrau  Inlet,  the  languages  of  the 

*  Cf.  Translation  by  G.  G.  Batten  in  "  Glimpses  of  the  Eastern  Archipelago," 
1894. 

f  Dr.  N.  Adriani.  Eenige  opmerkingen  over  de  MeraukC-Taal  naar  aanleiding 
der  Woordenlijst  van  Contr.  J.  Seijne  Kok,  in  "  De  Zuidwest  Nieuw-Guinca- 
expeditie  van  het  Kon.  Ned,  Aardrijkskundig  Genootschap,  i904-5-" 


324  PYGMIES  AND   PAPUANS 

shore  and  islands  are  illustrated  by  the  Kowiai  vocabu- 
laries of  Miklucho-Maclay  (13),  the  papers  of  G.  W.  Earl  * 
and  the  lists  of  S.  Muller  (10),  the  last  two  being  derived 
from  the  collections  made  during  the  voyage  of  the 
Triton  under  Lieut.  Modera  in  1828.  The  following 
languages  are  named  : — 

Lobo  at  Triton  Bay  (including  Namatote,  Aiduma,  Mawara,  and  Kaju-Mera). 

Wuaussirau,  inland  on  the  Kamaka-Wallar  Lake. 

^lairassis,  inland  from  Lobo. 

Lakahia,  on  Tclok  Lakaliia. 

Kiruru,  on  Tclok  Kiruru. 

Utanata,  on  the  Utanata  River. 

Westward  of  the  Utanata  a  vocabulary  of  the  language 
spoken  on  the  Mimika  River  people  was  obtained  by  Mr. 
Wollaston  in  1910-11.  A  list  of  the  same  language  is 
given  also  in  the  account  of  the  South-west  New  Guinea 
Expedition  of  the  Royal  Netherlands  Geographical 
Association. f  The  latter  work  contains  a  few  words  of 
the  language  used  at  the  mouth  of  the  Kupera  Pukwa 
River. 

The  language  of  Merauke  has  been  recorded  by  J. 
Seijne  Kok  (15),  and  by  J.  C.  Montague  and  E.  F.  Bik,  % 
that  of  Toro  by  S.  Bik.f 


n.    CLASSIFICATION   OF   THE   LANGUAGES. 

Of  the  three  languages  in  the  northern  part  of  Eastern 
Netherlands  New  Guinea  that  of  the  Jotafa  of  Hum- 
boldt Bay  has  been  ably  discussed  by  Dr.  Kern,§  who 
decides  that  in  phonology,  construction,  numeration  and 
word  store  it  presents  many  points  of  agreement  with 
the  Mefoor  or  Nufor  of  the  North-west.  But  it  un- 
doubtedly also  contains  many  words  which  are  of  non- 

*  G.  W.  Earl,  Native  Races  of  the  Indian  Archipelago,  Papuans,  1853,  Appen- 
dix, and  Jour.  Roy.  Geographical  Society,  1837,  p.  393-395- 

t  De  Zuidwest  Nieuw-Guinea-expeditie  van  het  Kon.  Ned.  Aardrijkskundig 
Genootschap,  1904-5.     Leiden,  1908. 

X  Cf.  Internat.  Archiv.  fiir  Ethnographic,  16,  1905,  and  Reports  of  Cambridge 
Anthropological  Expedition,  III.,  p.  387. 

§  H.  Kern.  Over  de  taal  der  Jotafa's  aan  de  Humboldtbaai,  Bijdragen  tot  de 
Taal-,  Land,  en  Volkenkunde  van  Ned.  Indie,  6  Volg.  deel  VII. 


APPENDIX  C  325 

Indonesian  origin.  The  Sentani  and  Pawi  languages 
seem  to  have  very  few  or  no  words  similar  to  the 
Indonesian,  and  may  probably  be  found  to  be  Papuan 
languages.  But  nothing  is  known  of  the  grammar.  The 
language  of  Wandammen  presents  agreements  with  the 
Mefoor  (or  Nufor)  in  vocabulary  and  also  in  some  points 
of  grammar.  It  will  probably  be  found  to  fall  into  the 
same  class  as  the  Nufor  and  Jotafa.  The  languages  of 
the  north  coast  and  islands  also  show  a  mixture  of 
Indonesian  with  other  words.  So  little  is  known  of  the 
structure  of  the  languages  in  the  Kumava  Peninsula  that 
their  place  cannot  be  determined  with  certainty.  The 
numerals  and  much  of  the  vocabulary  appear  to  be 
Indonesian,  *  but  there  are  Papuan  forms  in  the 
Grammar. 

The  Lobo  languages  of  the  Kowiai  district  on  the 
south  coast  appear  to  be  Indonesian,  but  those  inland 
and  south  of  Geelvink  Bay  have  a  distinct  connection 
with  those  on  the  south  coast  west  of  the  Kowiai  district, 
and  with  those  at  the  Utanata  River  and  beyond  the 
Mimika,  at  least  as  far  as  the  Kupera  Pukwa  River. 
Beyond  this  point  nothing  is  recorded  until  Princess 
Marianne  Strait  is  reached,  and  here  of  two  words 
known,  one  is  Merauke.  f  The  latter  language  extends 
to  the  Boundary.  All  west  of  the  Lobo  appear  to  be 
Papuan. 

Using  the  scanty  means  available,  the  languages  of 
the  Eastern  part  of  Netherlands  New  Guinea  may  be 
thus  provisionally  classified : — 

*  Cf.  G.  von  der  Gabclentz  und  A.  B.  Mullcr,  Melanesischcn  Sprachen,  1882, 
p.  536-541.     Also  C.  J.  F.  Ic  Cocq  d'Armandville  in  Tijds.  v.  Taal,  etc.,  46,  1903. 

t  P.  J.  B.  C.  Robide  van  der  Aa  in  Bijdragen  tot  de  Taal  etc.,  1SS3,  p.  197.  The 
word  is  mes,  coconut,  the  Merauke  mise. 


326 


PYGMIES  AND   PAPUANS 


NORTH    COAST  AND    ISLANDS   (INCLUDING   EAST  AND 
SOUTH    SHORE    OF   GEELVINK   BAY). 


Papuan.  Seka 

Sentani 
Mold  (?) 


Indonesian. 


Tarfia  (?) 
Takar 

Wamberan 

Pauwi 

Angadi 

Gorcda 

Nagramadu 

Manikion 

Jotafa 

Jamna 

Masimasi 

Moar 

Kumamba 

Waropin 

Mohr 

Tandia 

Jaur 

Dasener 

Wandammen 


West  of  Lake  Sentani. 
Lake  Sentani. 

Hinterland  of  Tana  Mcra  Bay. 
Tana  Mcra. 

Coast  West  of  Tana  Mera  Bay. 
Mainland  East  of  Mamberamo  R. 
?  Mamberamo  R. 

Villages  on  Lower  Mamberamo  R. 
Island  in  Jamur  Lake. 
South  of  Lake  Jamur. 
North- West  of  L.  Jamur. 
North  of  McCleur  Inlet  (Telok  Berau). 
Humboldt  Bay. 
Island  opposite  Takar. 
Island  West  of  Jamna. 
Islands  West  of  Masimasi. 
Islands  and  Coast  West  of  Moar  and  Takar. 
East  shore  of  Geelvink  Bay. 
Island  opposite  Waropin. 
Coast  South  of  Waropin. 
South- West  shore  of  Geelvink  Bay. 
West  of  Jaur. 
North  of  Dasener. 

SOUTH   COAST. 


Papuan.  Mairassis  Inland  from  Lobo. 

Wuaussirau  On  Kamaka  Wallar  Lake. 

Lakahia  On  Tclok  Lakahia. 

Kruru  On  Telok  Kiruru. 

Utanata  Inland  from  Utanata  River. 

Mimika  Inland  froin  Mimika  River. 

Kupera  Pukwa    Kupera  Pukwa  River. 

Merauke  Coast    between    the    Kumbc    River    and    the 

British  Boundarj'. 
Tore  Bensbach  R. 

Indonesian.     Onin  North  of  Kumava  Peninsula. 

Kapauer  North- West  of  Kumava  Peninsula. 

Karufa  South  of  Kumava  Peninsula. 

Lobo  Kowiai  Coast  and  Islands  of  Namatote,  Mawara, 

Aiduma,  and  Kaju-mera. 
*  The  term  "  Indonesian  "  is  used  here  only  to  imply  that  the  languages  so 
designated  appear  to  contain  some  words  and  constructions  which  are  found 
commonly  in  the  languages  of  the  Indian  Archipelago.  The  data  are  too  few  for 
definite  classification.  The  term  "  Papuan "  may  be  taken  to  mean  "  non- 
Indonesian  "  or  "  Non-Malayo-Polynesian  "  with  a  similar  limitation. 

III.    COMPARATIVE    NOTES   ON  THE  ANGADI-MIMIKA    GROUP 
OF   LANGUAGES. 

This  group  consists  of  the  Angadi,  Nagramadu, 
Goreda,  Utanata,  Lakahia,  Mimika  and  Kupera  Pukwa 
dialects,  and  perhaps  also  Kiruru. 


APPENDIX  C  327 


1.  Sound  changes.'^ 

A  comparison  of  vocabularies  shows  a  certain  amount 
of  sound  change  between  the  dialects.  Thus  Angadi  7n 
becomes  b  in  Utanata  and  Mimika  and  vice  versa,  t 

Ex.  Angadi  muii,  Mimika  and  Utanata  bu'/li,  bamboo. 

Angadi  mopere,  Nagramadu  niobere(bu),  Mimika  bopere,  navel. 
Angadi  mirimoi,  Utanata  birimbu,  Mimika  birim,  nose. 
Angadi  mau,  Utanata  tnouw,  Mimika  batiwe,  foot. 
Angadi  tohoma-pare,  Mimika  to-mari,  arm. 

The  Angadi  m  is  represented  sometimes  by  mh  in 
Mimika,  but  is  retained  in  Lakahia  and  Kiruru.  Utanata 
examples  are  not  found. 

Ex.  Angadi  mi,  Lakahia  mu,  Kirurn  mi,  Mimika  mbi,  mhn,  water. 
Angadi  metaho,  Mimika  mbataii,  spit. 
Angadi  imiri,  Mimika  imbiri,  shin. 
Mimika  amitri  is  Kupera  Pukwa  amhori. 

Angadi  in  some  words  loses  a  ^  or  ^  which  appears  in 
Mimika  and  Lakahia. 

Ex.  Angadi  irca,  Mimika  irlka,  Utanata  eriki,  fish. 
Angadi  katiwa,  Mimika  kaukwa,  woman. 
Angadi  maare,  Mimika  makare,  armlet. 
Angadi  mae,  Mimika  mbage,  Utanata  tnahe,  cry,  weep. 
Angadi  hehe,  Lakahia  eika,  finger-nail. 
Angadi  {nata)pairi,  Mimika  pigeri,  skin. 

A  few  words  show  an  interchange  of  r  and  n  between 
Mimika  and  Lakahia. 

Mimika  v.iare,  Lakahia  mana,  finger.    (Utanata  to-mare,  Angadi  mahare,  hand.) 
Mimika  iribu,  Utanata  and  Angadi  iripu,  Lakahia  ini-fa,  knee. 
Mimika  amuri,  Utanata  amure,  Angadi  amove,  Lakahia  amuno,  bow,  Kupera 
Pukwa  ambori. 

2.  Vocabulary. 

The  great  likeness  of  the  dialects  may  be  illustrated 
by  the  following  examples : — 

*  In  the  Examples  following,  the  vowels  should  be  sounded  as  in  Italian,  and 
the  consonants  as  in  English.     The  Dutch  oe  and  ie  are  written  u  and  i. 

t  This  interchange  is  very  common  in  the  languages  of  the  Papuan  Gulf. 
Cf.  Reports  of  Cambridge  Anthropological  Expedition,  III.,  pp.  325,  334. 


328 


PYGMIES  AND  PAPUANS 


A  ngadi. 

Utanaia. 

Mimika 

Arm. 

to  (in  compounds) 

to 

to 

Lakahia  esu-rua  (?) 

Arrow. 

ka-tiaro  (in  bundle) 

Hare 

tiari 

Boat. 

ku 

ku 

ku 

Chin. 

kepare 

kepare 

Coconut. 

iitiri 

uteri 

uteri 

Kupera  Pukwa  otiri. 

Dog. 

uwiri 

wuri 

wiri 

Lakahia    iwora,    Nagramadu 

iwcra,       Kupera       Pukwa 

mveri. 

Ear. 

ihani 

iiini 

eve 

Eye 

Fire 

mume 

iname 

manie 

titumai 

uta 

uta 

Lakahia    iisia,    Kiruru    uta, 

Nagramadu  uha. 

Give 

kcma 

kema 

— 

Hair 

nip-ere 

tiiri 

viri 

Kupera  Pukwa,  uiri 

Hand 

■mahare 

tu-mare 

mare 

Lakakia,  mana  (finger). 

Head. 

nipau 

upatcw 

kapa-ite 

Lakahia  uwiia. 

House. 

kdme 

kam'i 

kame 

Iron. 

jau  (pot) 

(puruti) 

iau 

Laugh. 
Lip. 

oko 

oku 

oko 

iri 

iri  (mouth)  iri 

Kiruru  uru  (mouth). 

Moon. 

pura 

uran 

pura 

Lakahia  biira. 

Mountain 

(pamogo) 

pukare 

Lakahia  hugtira,  Wuaussirau 

war  a. 

Neck. 

amoii 

ema 

ima 

Lakahia    umia,    Nagramadu 
umeke. 

Paddle. 

pd 

pd 

pah 

Lakahia  hoa. 

Pig. 

oM 

u 

u 

Lakahia     t((/fl),     Nagramadu 

oha,  Kupera  Pukwa  uwo. 

Rain. 

keke 

Iwmak 

ke 

Lakahia  geija),  Kiruru  ke. 

Sago. 

amata 

(kinani) 

amota 

Lakahia     ama,     Nagramadu 

ema,  Kupera  Pukwa  ameta. 

Sleep. 

ete 

de 

cte 

Kupera  Pukwa  ete. 

Sugar  cane.  . . 

mone 

moni 

Lakahia  moni{fa). 

Sun. 

jau 

youw 

yau 

Lakahia  aya. 

Tongue. 

mere 

mare 

mall    . 

Lakahia  mora. 

Tooth. 

mi 

titi 

titi 

Nagramadu  si. 

Wind. 

hiyniri 

Joivri 

kimire 

Kiruru  kemuru. 

3.  Pronouns.  These  are  given  only  in  Mimika  for  the 
singular  number,  and  in  Utanata  for  the  first  person 
singular,  but  the  words  for  "  I,"  Mimika  doro  and  Utanata 
area  are  unlike.  In  Mimika  the  possessive  is  shown  by 
the  suffix  'ta,  which  is  used  also  with  other  words. 
Dorota,  mine,  oro-ta,  yours,  amare-ta  his,  wehwaida-ta  of 

another  man.  Wehwaida  is  compounded  apparently  of 
'awe  (ri)  man  and  awaida  other.  In  Mairassis  "I"  is 
omona. 

4.  Numerals.  No  numerals  are  given  by  Muller  or 
Earl  for  Utanata.  "People  of  Utanata  had  very  little 
knowledge  of  counting.    When  wishing  to  make  known 


Gorcda. 

Lakahia. 

Mimika. 

iinakiua 

onarawa 

inakwa 

jdmanini 

aboma 

yamani 

(tonia) 

yamani-inakwa 

(fat) 

ama-yamani 

mahcri-he} 

or 

{yim) 

rim-onarawa 

•■ 

APPENDIX  C  329 

any  number,  they  made  use  of  the  word  aiueri  and 
counted  on  their  lingers  and  toes."  *  In  Angadi,  Nagra- 
madu,  Goreda,  Lakahia  and  Mimika,  the  numbers  appear 
as  follows : 

Angadi.  Nagramadu. 

1.  janatlwa  vadi 

2.  jaminatia  abama 

3.  jaminaii-janariwa     libamu-nadi 

4.  awaitumd-janiinatia  abama-banio 

5.  mdlutrc-ajaheraiiri     mdma-riba 

6.  mdhdre-janiifiwa        niariba-nadi 
10.  muhure-jiiminatia      mama  rubamu  (dortt 

These  show  a  numeration  only  as  far  as  two. 
"Three"  and  "four"  are  made  by  additions,  2  +  1  =  3 
and  2  +  2  =  4,  except  in  Angadi  where  awaitamh- 
jaminatia  means  "another  two"  with  which  cf.  the 
Mimika  awaida,  other.  Mahare,  malieri,  mari  in  the 
words  for  "  five  "  also  mean  "hand,"  abbreviated  to  ma  in 
mama  of  Nagramadu.  The  Goreda  tdorii  given  for 
"ten,"  is  the  Angadi  taoni,  much,  Mimika  takiri,  many. 
In  Lakahia  the  words  for  "  three,"  "  four,"  "  five,"  "  six  " 
have  the  Ceram  numerals  which  are  also  used  in  Lobo 
and  Namatote.  The  Mairassis  and  Wuaussirau  numerals 
agree  with  one  another,  but  differ  entirely  from  those  of 
the  Angadi-Mimika  group. 

One  Two        Three      Four      Five  Six  Ten 

Mairassis      iangaiiw   aniooi      karia       id  iworo   iwora-tnoi        werowa-mdi 

Wuaussirau  avau        amoi        karia       aiwera   iworo   iwor-tanan      iwor-toki-tani 

The  low  numeration  in  all  these  languages  may  be 
regarded  as  an  indication  of  their  Papuan  character. 

5.  Construction. 

A  few  grammatical  forms  which  appear  to  be  indi- 
cated in  the  vocabularies  may  be  noted  here. 

a.  The  possessive  with  pronouns  and  pronominal 
words  is  indicated  by  a  suffix  -ta.  Mimika,  doro-ta,  of 
me,  mine ;  oro-ta,  thine ;  amare-ta,  his ;  wehwaida-ta,  of 

*  G.  W.  Earl  in  Jour.  Royal  Geographical  Society,  1837,  p.  30.}. 


330  PYGMIES  AND   PAPUANS 

another  man.  In  Angadi  several  compound  words  end 
in  nata,  which  thus  appears  to  be  a  noun,  na  (thing  ?), 
with  the  possessive  suffix ;  and  it  seems  possible  to 
explain  such  words  as  itta-nata,  firewood ;  kara  nata, 
head  of  javelin — i.e.  fire-thing-of,  javelin-thing-of.  Cf. 
also  nata  pairi  given  by  v.  d.  Sande  for  "  skin,"  with 
Mimika  p'lg'ni,  skin,  which  suggests  that  nata  pairi  means 
skin  of  something. 

h.  The  adjective  follows  the  noun.  Utanata  warari 
napetike,  water  big,  river. 

c.  A  noun  in  the  genitive  relation  precedes  its  sub- 
stantive. Mimika  ban  mame,  leg's  eye,  ankle  ;  iwait 
makarc,  belly's  band.  Angadi  mahare  hehe,  finger  nail ; 
mail  hehe,  toe  nail ;  mirimoi  ipa,  nose  hole,  nostril ;  ihani 
ipa,  hole  in  ear  lobe  ;  amore  erne,  bow's  rattan,  bowstring. 

d.  The  subject  precedes  the  verb.  Angadi  jau  hinau- 
mara,  sun  rises  (?),  morning;  jali  emapojemia,  sun  sets  (?), 
evening. 

e.  The  object  also  precedes  the  verb.  Angadi  ihani 
aimeri,  ear  pierce  ;  mirimoi  aimer i,  nose  pierce. 

These  five  points  indicate  a  Papuan  structure  of  the 
languages. 


6.  Comparison  with  Meraiihe  and  the  Languages  of  British 
New  Guinea  West  of  the  Fly  River. 

The  Papuan  languages  usually  show  so  few  agree- 
ments in  vocabulary  that  the  likeness  of  words,  unless 
frequent,  cannot  be  held  to  establish  relationship.  In 
the  comparative  vocabulary,  words  and  numerals  are 
added  from  the  languages  on  British  Territory.*  These 
show  a  few  likenesses,  which  may,  however,  be  acci- 
dental. 

*  Those  quoted  are  :  Dmigenvah  (or  Pari)  on  Wai  Kasa  R.,  Bavgti,  Morehcad 
River  ;  Btigi,  Mai  Kasa  River,  Dabu,  Paho  R.,  Mowata,  mouth  of  Binaturi  R., 
Saibai  Is.  in  Western  Torres  Straits,  Miriam.  Murray  Is.  Torres  Straits,  Knvivi  and 
Jihti  West  shore  of  Fly  Delta,  Kiivai  Is.  in  Flv  Delta. 


APPENDIX   C  331 


Arm.     Rliraika  to,  Dungerwab  tond,  Dabu  tan^,  IMiriam  ta^,  Kiwai  In 

Arrow.     Mimika  tiaii,  Kiwai  terc. 

Arrow  barb.     Mimika  imari,  Kiwai  ivere. 

Basket.     Mimika  temonc,  Kunini  diba,  Jibn  ditiiha, 

Mimika  eta,  Kiwai  sito,  Mowata  hito. 
Bird.     Mimika  pateru,  Bugi  pa  (?).  Dabu  papa  (?). 
Earth.     Mimika  tiri,  Bangu  tiritari. 
Eat.     Mimika  nainuka,  Bangu  jamiikwa. 
Elbow.     IMimika  to-mame,  Mowata  tu-pape. 
Fire.     Mimika  uta,  Miriam  nr. 

Forehead.     Mimika  metar{rc),  Bangu  mithago,  Miriam  mat. 
Head.     Mimilca  k  a  pane,  Bangu  kainbii. 
Iron.     Mimika  tau,  Dungerwab  tod. 

Nose.     Mimika  birim,  Dabu  murung,  Saibai,  Miriam  pit. 
Pig.     IMimika  ap,  Meranke  sapi. 

Rat.     Mimika  kemako,  Bugi  mahata,  Saibai  mahas,  Miriam  mokcis. 
Shore.     Mimika  tiri,  Dungerwab  tredre. 

Sleep.     Mimika  ete,  Bangu  ete-betka,  Dungerwab  cda-bcl,  IMiriam  ut-cid. 
Tree.    Mimika  iiti,  Kiwai  ota. 


IV.    MALAYAN    INFLUENCE   ON   THE    SOUTH    COAST   OF 
NETHERLANDS    NEW   GUINEA. 

In  a  discussion  of  the  languages  of  the  south-eastern 
shores  of  Netherlands  New  Guinea,  the  extent  of  Malay 
influence  in  that  region  must  be  taken  into  account. 
Mr.  William  Churchill  has  lately  put  forward  a  theory 
that  the  Polynesian  people  entered  the  Pacific  not  only 
by  coasting  along  the  northern  shores  of  New  Guinea  to 
the  Solomon  Group,  but  also  by  a  passage  through  Torres 
Straits,  and  thence  along  the  south-eastern  coast  of 
British  New  Guinea  to  the  New  Hebrides.*  On  tracing 
the  languages  westward  from  Polynesia,  it  is  an  indisput- 
able fact  that  many  words  which  are  identical  with  Poly- 
nesian are  found  in  use  along  the  shores  of  British  New 
Guinea,  though  they  are  not  used  in  a  Polynesian  syntax, 
or  in  the  simplified  forms  usual  in  the  Eastern  tongues. 
It  is  also  a  fact  that  many  of  these  same  words  are 
current  also  in  the  western  islands  of  Indonesia.  For 
example,  hua,  fruit ;  ina,  mother ;  lata,  blood  ;  lau,  leaf ; 
au,  I ;  ruma,  house ;  inu,  drink ;  tttu,  louse ;  tohu,  sugar 

♦William  Churchill,  "The  Polynesian  Wanderings."  Washington.  191 1. 
Pp.  v.,  147. 


332  PYGMIES  AND   PAPUANS 

cane,  and  many  other  words  are  identical  in  the  south- 
east of  British  New  Guinea  and  in  Ceram.  But  in 
British  New  Guinea  the  languages  which  show  likeness 
to  Polynesian  end  abruptly  at  Cape  Possession,  and  are 
not  found  west  of  that  point.*  Hence  it  becomes  impor- 
tant to  inquire  how  far  the  similar  tongues  of  Amboyna 
and  Ceram  have  influenced  the  New  Guinea  languages  to 
the  east  of  them.  That  there  is  such  an  influence  is 
plain  from  the  vocabularies  of  the  languages.  Indo- 
nesian words,  such  as  the  Onin  (lo)  kayu,  wood  ;  tanigan, 
ear  ;  nifan,  tooth ;  fenu,  turtle  ;  mani,  bird  ;  afi,  fire,  are 
of  common  occurrence  in  the  islands  of  the  Arafura  Sea, 
and  on  the  coast  of  the  mainland.  But  these  words  are 
more  common  in  the  west,  and  gradually  disappear 
towards  Torres  Straits,  and  are  not  found  beyond.  In 
Rosenberg's  Karufa  list  (12)  we  find  such  characteristi- 
cally Indonesian  words  as  ulu,  hair ;  mata,  eye ;  uhru, 
mouth  ;  taruya,  ear  ;  nima,  hand  ;  ora,  sun ;  uran,  moon  ; 
niyu,  coconut.  Words  of  this  kind  are  found  also  in 
Lobo  (10)  and  Namatote  (13),  as,  for  example,  wuran, 
moon ;  lahi,  fire ;  nima,  hand ;  nena,  mother ;  rara, 
blood ;  metan,  black ;  tohu,  sugar  cane ;  wosa,  paddle ; 
matoran,  sit ;  mariri,  stand.  Some  of  these  words  seem 
to  have  passed  into  Utanata  (10)  and  Lakahia  (13),  and 
apparently,  though  not  so  freely,  into  Wuaussirau  (13), 
Mairassis  (10),  and  Mimika  (14).  The  Kiruru  vocabulary 
of  Maclay  does  not  appear  to  show  any  words  of  this 
kind.  The  following  are  examples  of  Indonesian  or 
Ceram  words  in  the  Utanata-Mimika  group  of  languages. 

utanata  uran,  Lakahia  bura,  Mairassis  furan,  Mimika  pura,  Ceram  wulana, 
moon.     The  Angadi  has  also  pura. 

Lakahia  bugura,  Wuaussirau  wara,  Mimika  pukare,  Ceram  uhara,  mountain. 
Utanata  has  pamogo. 

Utanata  po,  Lakahia  hoa,  Mimika  poh,  Ceram  wosa,  paddle. 

Utanata  kai,  Ceram  kai,  wood.     For  this  the  Mimika  is  uH. 

A   word    of   much    interest    in    this    region    is    turika 

*  Reports  of  Cambridge  Anthropological  Expedition,  IIL,  p.  290. 


APPENDIX   C  333 

or  tuH.  This  is  given  by  Muller  in  his  Ceram  Hst  as 
turika,  knife,  in  Lobo  turi,  Onin  timi.  Maclay  gives  the 
Ceram  (Keffing)  as  turito,  Namatote  and  Wuaussirau  tiiri, 
also  for  "  knife."  The  word  does  not  appear  in  Angadi 
or  in  the  Hst  of  Ekris  (19).  Tliough  not  apparently  used 
in  Merauke  turik  has  travelled  eastward  as  far  as  Torres 
Straits  and  the  Fly  River,  and  even  to  the  borders  of  the 
Papuan  Gulf.  Thus  Bangu  turik,  Dabu  turikata,  Sisiami 
(Bamu  R.)  tiiriiko,  and  Tirio  tuviiko  mean  "  knife  "  [i.e.  iron 
knife).  In  Bugi,  Saibai,  Mowata  and  Kiwai,  turika  and 
in  Murray  Island  tiilik  mean  "  iron."  * 

Dr.  N.  Adriani  has  pointed  out  some  words  adopted 
from  Malay  in  Merauke  and  also  some  apparent  agree- 
ments between  that  language  and  Indonesian  languages 
generally,!  but  there  is  no  evidence  of  any  language  from 
Ceram  having  passed  through  the  Torres  Straits.  Agree- 
ments between  the  Merauke  and  Papuan  languages  to  the 
east  are  also  pointed  out  by  Dr.  Adriani  J  but  these  are  no 
evidence  of  the  passage  of  a  Polynesian  fleet,  as  they 
are  not  Polynesian  words,  and  the  languages  using  them 
have  no  Polynesian  syntax.  Mr.  Churchill's  theory  of 
the  Polynesian  entry  into  the  Pacific  by  way  of  Torres 
Straits  cannot  therefore  be  maintained. 


V.  A  COMPARATIVE  VOCABULARY  OF  LANGUAGES  IN  THE 
NORTH  EAST  AND  SOUTH  EAST  OF  NETHERLANDS 
NEW  GUINEA  AND  OF  BRITISH  NEW  GUINEA  WEST 
OF   THE    FLY    RIVER. 

The  following  vocabulary  is  arranged  strictly  in 
Geographical  order.  The  North  Eastern  Languages 
follow  from  East  to  West,  from  Seka  to  Manikion,  and 

*  The  writer  was  however  told  by  Murray  Island  natives  that  ''  tiihk  "  was  the 
name  of  the  old  shell  axe. 

t  Eenige  opmcrkingcn  over  de  Mcraukc-taal,  in  ''  De  ZuidwcstNicuw-Guinea- 
expeditie  van  het  Kon.  Ned.  Aardrijkskundig  Genootschap,  1904-51"  p.60i-2. 

X  Op.  cit.,  p.  G64-G65. 


334  PYGMIES  AND   PAPUANS 

the  South  Eastern  from  Onin  to  the  Boundary  and 
thence  along  the  South  Coast  of  British  Territory  to  the 
Western  or  Right  Bank  of  the  Fly  River. 

The  following  authorities  have  been  quoted : —  * 

1.  Seka.     P.  E.  Moolenburg.     Tijd.  v.  Indische  Taal 

xlvii.  1904. 

2.  Jotafa  [and  Sentani  in  (  )].    G.  L.  Bink  in  ibid. 

xlv.  1902. 
3    Sentani.     P.    E.    Moolenburg.      Bijdragen.    t.d. 
Taal.  Ned  Indie  (7)  v.  1906. 

4.  TanaJi  Merah,  Tarfia,  Takar,  Jamna,  Masimasi, 

Moar  (i.e.  Wakde)  and  Kumamba.  G.  G. 
Batten.  Glimpses  of  the  Eastern  Archipelago, 
1894. 

5.  Arimoa.     A.   B.    Meyer.     Uber  die  Mafoor'sche, 

1874. 

6.  Pauwi.     P.J. B.C.  Robid^  v.d.  Aa.     "  Reisen  van 

Braam  Morris."  Bijd.  t.d.  Taal.  Ned.  Indie.  (4) 
X.  1885. 

7.  Wamhcran,    Waropin,    Mohr,    Tandia,    Dasener, 

J  any.  Fabritius.  Tijd.  v.  Indische  Taal.  iv. 
1885. 

8.  Angadi,  Goreda,  Nagramadu,  Manikion.    G.  A.  J. 

v.  d.  Sande  in  "Nova  Guinea."  Vol.  III. 
1907. 

9.  Wandammen.     G.    L.    Bink.     Tijd.    v.    Indische 

Taal.  xxxiv.  1891. 

10.  Onin,    Loho,    Mairassis,     Utanata.       S.    Muller. 

Reisen,  1857. 

11.  Kapaur.     C.  J.  F.  le  Cocq  d'Armandville.     Tijd. 

v.  Indische  Taal.  xlvi.  1903. 

12.  Karufa.      H.    v.    Rosenberg.      Der    Malayische 

Archipel.  1878. 

*  The  number  prefixed  is  that  by  which  these  authorities  have  been  referred  to 
in  the  preceding  pages. 


APPENDIX  C  335 

13.  Namatote,  Wuaussirau,  Lakahia,  Kiruni.    N.  v. 

Miklucho  Maclay.    Tijd.  v.  Indischc  Taal.  xxiii. 
1876. 

14.  Mimika.    MS.  Dr.  A.  F.  R.  Wollaston. 

15.  Meranke.     J.  Seijne  Kok.     Verhand.  v.  h.  Batav. 

Genootsch.  v.  Kunsten  Ivi.  1906. 

16.  Bangu,     Biigi,     Dabu,    Mowata,    Kunini,    Jihu, 

Tagota.     Reports  of  Cambridge  Anthropological 
Expedition.     Vol.  III.  1907. 

17.  Parb,   Saibai,   Kiwai,   and   Tirio.     MSS.   S.    H. 

Ray. 

18.  Nufor.     J.  L.  V.  Hasselt.    Hollandsch.  Noefoorsch 

Woordenboek,  1876. 

19.  Ceram,    A.  v.  Ekris.   Woordenlijst  v.  Ambonsche 

Eilanden.     Mededeel.    v.     h.     Ned.    Zendings 
Genoots,  viii.  1864-65. 

20.  Tubumasa,  Karas.     (Islands  between  Ceram  and 

Onin.)     P.  J.  B.  C.  Robide  v.  d.  Aa.  Reisen 
naar  Ned.  Nieuw-Guinea,  1879. 


336 


PYGMIES  AND   PAPUANS 


COMPARATIVE  VOCABULARY. 


Man. 

Woman. 

Head. 

Eye. 

Ear. 

Man. 

Vrouw. 

Hoofd. 

Oog. 

Oor. 

Seka 

subi 

rutja 

re 

Jotafa 
Scntani 

tantc 

moi 

rabunadu 

windu 

teni 

doh 

ml 

farem. 

yord,  (ycroh 

anggei. 

(panem 

(angei 

Arimoa 

kabun 

(white) 
maomba 

dabro 

masamana 

seroro 

Pauwi 

ncdba 

kikia 

kntpcremba 

Angadi 

were 

kauwa 

rupau 

mame 

ihani 

Nagramadu 

.— 

yabima 

ehXra 

Wandam- 

mua 

babien 

rupai 

r^ne 

tatelajau 

men 

Onin 

marara 

matapais 

onimpatin 

matapatin 

tanigan 

Kapaur 
Karufa 

nemehar 

tombohar 

kenda 

kendep 

per 

mutangki 

maisoida 

umuh 

mata  > 

tarmga 

Namatote 

murwana 

merwine 

umu 

matatungu 

zingangu 

Lobo 

marowana 

mawina 

monongo, 
umun 

matalongo 

tringango 

Mairassis 

fatakowa 

ewei 

nanguwu 

nambutu 

newirana 

Wuaussirau 

taturobu 

ewei 

kotera 

obiatu 

obiru 

Lakahia 

odacira 

yama 

uw'-.a 

managa 

yawana 

Kiruru 

yawatsha 

Utanata 

marowana 

kurani 

upauw 

mameh 

iani 

Mimika 

uweri 

kaukwa, 
aina 

kapane 

mame 

ene 

Merauke 

amnangga 

bubti,  save, 
isus(?)  iwoge 

pa 

kinde 

kambit 

Bangu 
Parb 

kambu 

ti 

taroba,  tarup 

ar 

temarb 

mor 

taramb 

tongal 

Bugi 

la 

mala 

beneqct 

kalye 

laandra 

Dabu 

rabu 

mure 

bunkut 

ikapa 

ran,  ika 

Saibai 

garakazi 

ipokazi 

kuiko 

dan,  purka 

kaura 

Mowata 

auana 

orobo 

epuru 

damari 

hepate,  gare 

Kunini 

binam,  ima 

magebi,  ule 

mope 

ircu 

tablame 

Jibu 

vientete,rcga 

konga 

mopu 

yere 

yekrom 

Kiwai 

dubu 

orobo 

epuru 

damari 

sepate,  gare 

Tirio 

amiami 

kinasu 

yapuru 

pariti 

pamata 

Tagota 

... 

moream 

kana 

pari 

tuap 

Nufur 

snun 

bien 

rewuri 

mgasi 

knasi 

Ceram 

malona, 
mandai, 
makwai, 
manawal 

mahina, 
bina,  lento, 
pepina 

uru,  ulu 

mata,  maa 

tarina,  talina 

Tuburuasa 

maruana 

mapata 

unin 

matanpuon 

taningan 

Karas 

kianam 

paas 

nakalun 

kangiri 

kulokeim 

APPENDIX  C 


337 


COMPARATIVE  VOCABULARY. 


Nose. 

Tongue. 

Tooth. 

Hand. 

Sun. 

Neus. 

Tong. 

Tand. 

Hand. 

Zon. 

Seka 

ha 

... 

... 

na  (nabera, 
arm) 

... 

Jotafa 

sn 

meriki 

noh 

tibimi 

tap 

Scntani 

3'oi 

feuw 

je,  (tje 

megeragera, 
(posadi 

SU 

Ariinoa 

siiino 

mataro 

umata 

... 

Pauwi 

kimpana 

Idmsiba 

kabrua 

kibawia(fln«) 

tebia 

Angadi 

mirimoi 

mere 

titi 

maliare 

yau 

Nagramaclu 

... 

yamanarai 

si 

... 

Wandam- 

swone 

tapcrO 

derenesi 

waraba 

wor 

men 

Onin 

wirin 

eri 

nifan 

nemien 

rera 

Kapaur 

krmomba, 
kanunga 

gengabu 

mehien-tab 

tan 

kemina 

Karufa 

sikai 

... 

nimang-uta 

ohra 

Namatotc 

iyaongu 

j'aeiyongu 

zwiutiongu 

siusiongu 

oro-mata- 
wuti 

Lobo 

sikaiongo 

kariongo 

ruwotongo 

nimango-uta 

orah 

Mairassis 

nambi 

nenegun 

sika 

okorwita 

onguru 

Wuaussirau 

ombi 

onsabi 

oras 

uadu 

unguru 

Lakahia 

onoma 

mara 

ifa 

esurua 

aya 

Kiruru 

unuga 

uru 

yauburawa 

Utanata 

birimbu 

mare 

titi 

march 

dyauw 

Mimika 

birim 

mall 

titi 

mare 

yan 

Merauke 

anggip 

umim 

manggat 

sangga 

katoni 

Bangu 

thamina 

ter 

tambia 

epotha 

Parb 

mebele 

penji 

tol 

tond 

abiard 

Bugi 

wede 

dangamai 

lenge 

trang-qab 

yabada 

Dabu 

murung 

dogmar 

ngui,  ngoia 

tang-kor 

yabada 

Saibai 

piti 

noi 

dang 

get 

goiga 

Mowata 

wodi 

watotorope 

ibuanara 

tu-pata 
(palm) 

iwio 

Kunini 

keke 

weta 

giriu 

imwe 

bimu 

Jibu 

soku 

vrate 

orkak 

yema 

loma 

Kiwai 

wodi 

wototorope 

iawa 

tu-pata 
(Palm) 

sai 

Tirio 

norose 

ima 

SU 

tikiri 

uainea 

Tagota 

miu 

uo 

kam 

dari 

Nufor 

snori 

kaprendi 

nasi 

rwasi 

ori 

Ceram 

hiru,  inu. 

mei,  mG,  ma 

niki,  niri, 

rima,  lima, 

rematai,  lea- 

ninu,  ili 

nityi,  nio 

barau 

matai,    lea- 
manyo.dea- 
matac 

Tuburuasa 

niring 

kvveri 

... 

tangan 

nera 

Karas 

bustang 

belein 

taan 

Ion 

338 


PYGMIES  AND  PAPUANS 


COMPARATIVE    VOCABULARY, 


Moon. 

Star. 

Rain. 

Stone. 

Fire. 

I\Iaan. 

Ster. 

Regen. 

Steen. 

Vuur. 

Scka 

Jotafa 

sembi 

endor 

tkb 

at 

aijari 

Sentani 

ara,  (aroh 

(ya 

tuga,  (duwa 

I 

Arimoa 

... 

fati 

... 

Pauwi 

Angadi 

purS 

kehe 

uta-mai 

Nagramadu 

emoj'a 

uha 

Wandam- 

sembai 

siberere 

rama 

rebuki 

adia,  adyat 

mcn 

Onin 

punono 

apatin-no- 
farere 

unano 

pati 

api 

Kapaur 

koba,  kcba, 
kabah 

mbab 

keri 

war 

torn 

Karufa 

uran 

6ma 

kama 

langerah 

lawi 

Namatote 

wuran 

omoma 

omo 

labi 

Lobo 

furan 

komakoma 

komah 

lawi 

Mairassis 

furan 

waniwani 

yamo 

iworo 

Wuaussiran 

angane 

onburi 

yamu 

... 

iworo 

Lakahia 

bnra 

mawena 

gefa 

... 

usia 

Kiruru 

imaru 

ke 

uta 

Utanata 

uran 

koma 

uta 

Mimika 

pura 

mako 

ke 

Oman! 

uta 

Merauke 

mandan 

ovom,  nvum 

hee 

katare 

takavS 

Bangu 

narunjar 

tan 

meni 

Parb 

tugiu 

nou 

pend 

Bugi 

kak 

qatai 

yugula 

dadcr 

iu 

Dabu 

qar,  qak 

piro 

igurai 

dadar 

yu,  dunibrcl 

Saibai 

mulpal,  kizai 

titui 

ari 

kula 

mui 

Mowata 

ganume 

zogubo 

wiari 

nora-api 

era 

Knnini 

mabie 

wale 

ngupe 

magezuli 

muic 

Jibu 

mobi 

guje 

piro 

nora 

para 

Kiwai 

sagana 

g"gi 

mauburo, 
wisai 

kuraere 

era 

Tirio 

koramc 

apapa 

idnko 

kuma 

suzc 

Tagota 

mano 

durupa 

tamaga 

jau 

Nufor 

paik 

ataruwa, 
samfari 

mekem, 
miun 

kcru 

fr.r 

Ccram 

hnran,  iilano 

marit,  kolo- 

uran,  ulan, 

hatu,  batu 

hau,  au 

buran 

mali,  ka- 
mali.umalk 

kial 

5 

Tnburuasa 

puna 

finma 

unang 

pati 

lawi 

Karas 

pak 

massccr 

kckal 

jaar 

dien 

APPENDIX  C 


339 


CO^IPARATIVE    VOCABULARY. 


Water. 

T'S- 

¥hh. 

Coconut. 

House. 

Water. 

Varken. 

Visch. 

Kokos-noot. 

Huis. 

Seka 

pa 

Jolafa 

nann 

por 

igeh 

nino 

duma 

Sentani 

Im 

(yoku 

ka 

koh 

ime 

Arimoa 

dano 

... 

niwi 

Pauwi 

memba 

hiisia 

Angadi 

mi 

6ho 

irca 

iitiri 

kiime 

Nagramadu 

oha 

magrabe 

ya 

Wandam- 

kambu 

pisai 

diya 

ankadi 

anio 

men 

Onin 

weaii 

papio 

sairi 

ruroh 

rumaso 

Kapaur 

kera 

ndur,  kala- 
paii,  mama 

heir 

no'ur 

wuri 

Karufa 

ualar 

... 

dolmdi 

niyu 

tsaring 

Namatotc 

walar 

boi 

dondi 

niu  (?) 

sarin 

Lobo 

walar 

bcli 

donde 

niu 

sarin 

Mairassis 

wata 

bemba 

kuratii 

owah 

watara 

Wuaussirau 

kai 

wembe 

kuratu 

obo 

wata 

Lakahia 

mura 

ufa 

nema 

wuina 

yafa 

Kiriiru 

mi 

Utanata 

warari 

uh 

erika 

uteri 

kami 

Rlimika 

mbi,  mbn 

u,  api 

ireka 

uteri 

kame 

Merauke 

daka 

basike 

parart,  pa- 
rara 

mise,  onggat, 
wimap 

sava,  aha 

Bangu 

tauqar 

roiigu 

thaua 

nan gar 

boot,  munka 

Parb 

nou 

kimb 

angur 

argh,  kwogh, 
keu 

mongo  _ 

Bu.gi 

ngi 

simbel 

galba 

nge_ 

mae 

Dabu 

ine 

mule,  chi- 
mela,  sasa 

pudi 

ngoi,  guvi 

ma 

Saibai 

nguki 

burum 

wapi 

urab 

mud 

Rlowata 

obo 

boromo 

arimina 

oi 

moto 

Kunini 

nie 

blome 

ibu 

ia 

mete 

Jibu 

nia 

woroma 

waji 

u 

meta 

Kiwai 

obo 

boromo 

irisina 

oi 

moto 

Tirio 

opa 

scpera 

kopoma 

sapu-mutira 

turic 

Tagota 

mauka 

minao 

Nufor 

war 

beyen 

iyen 

srabon 

rum 

Ceram 

waer,  wael, 
kwael 

hahu,  apal 

ian,  iano 

niwer,  niwel, 
nimel,  nik- 
wel,  noolo 

ruma,  luma 

Tuburuasa 

were 

se 

kapalla 

Karas 

pere 

soor 

kawe 

340  PYGMIES  AND   PAPUANS 

COMPARATIVE   VOCABULARY,   NUMERALS. 


One.     Een. 

Two.    Twee. 

Three.     Drie. 

Four.     Vier. 

Seka 

ahi  (ari  ?) 

hitjun 

hetun 

nabu 

Jotafa 

the 

ros 

for 

au 

Sentani 

imbai 

be 

name 

guri 

Tana  Merah 

ogosarai 

saibona 

ondoafi 

soronto 

Tarfia 

tukse 

arho 

tor 

fauk 

Takar 

afateni 

nawa 

nawa-jengki 

nawa-nawa 

Jamna 

tes 

ru 

tau 

fau 

Masimasi 

kls 

ru 

tou 

fo 

INIoar 

hibeti 

ru 

tou 

fau 

Kumamba 

tes 

lu 

taur 

fau 

Pauwi 

pa-sari 

pa-ri 

pa-rosi 

pa-rasi 

Wamberan 

tenama 

bisa 

Waropin 

wo-sio 

wo-ruo 

wo-ro 

wo-ako 

Mohr 

tata 

ruru 

oro 

ao 

Angadi 

janSuwci 

jaminatia 

jaminati-ja- 
nauwa 

awaita  ma- ja- 
minatia 

Goreda 

unakwa 

jamanini 

Nagramadu 

nadi 

abama 

abdma-nadi 

abamo-bamo 

Tandia 

nei 

nisi 

turusi 

attesi 

Dasener 

joser 

suru 

torn 

ati 

Jaur 
Wandammen 

rebe 

redu 

reii 

rea 

siri 

mondu 

torn 

ate 

Manikion 

hom 

hoai 

homoi 

hoku 

Onin 

sa 

nuwa 

teni 

fat 

Kapauer 

here-wo 

here-rik 

hgre-teri 

here-ngara 

Karufa 

simoksi 

rueiti 

tohru 

bahdi 

Namatote 

samosi 

rueiti 

toru 

fat 

Lobo 

samosi 

rueti 

tu\vru 

fat 

Mairassis 

tangauw 

am5i 

karia 

ai 

Wuaussirau 

anau 

amoi 

karia 

aiwera 

Lakahia 

onarawa 

aboma 

torua 

fat 

Mimika 

inakwa 

yamani 

yamani-ina- 
kwa 

ama-yamani 

Merauke 

zakod 

iena 

iena-zakod 

iena-iena 

Bangu 

nambu,  nambi 

yethombi«  ke- 
thembi 

yetho 

asar 

Parb 

ambiur 

tumbi 

Iambi 

tutubiar 

Bugi 

tarangesa 

metakina 

gingi-metakina 

topea 

Dabu 

tupi-dibi 

kumi-rivi 

kumi-reriga 

kumi-rivi- 

kumi-rivi 

Saibai 

wara,  urapon 

uka,  ukasar 

uka-modobigal 

uka-uka 

Mowata 

nau 

netoa 

... 

Kunini 

iepa 

neneni 

nesae 

neneni-neneni 

Jibu 

yepa 

kuraiepa 

{finger) 

kuraiepa 

kuraiepa 

Kiwai 

nau 

netewa 

netewa-nau 

netewa-netewa 

Tirio 

oroka 

miseka 

misorako 

miseka-miseka 

Tagota 

uradaga 

mitiga 

nan 

mitiga-mitiga 

Nufur 

sai,  oser 

dui,  suru 

kior 

fiak 

Ceram 

isa,  sa 

rua,  lua,  dua, 

teru,  telu,  tolu, 

haa,  hata,  ata. 

roti 

toru 

fat 

COMPARATIVE   VOCABULARY,   NUMERALS. 


Five.     Vijf. 

Six.    Zes. 

Ten.     Tien. 

Twenty.     Twintig. 

Seka 

naplan 

naplahi 

amplahari 

amplanaplan 

Jotafa 

mimiam 

mandosTm 

ronduminarGs 

manisayam 

Santani 

mehembai 

mehinimbai 

nichinmehem- 
bai 

mcgohri 

Tana  Mcrah 

ogosarai 

demena 

Tarfia 

rim 

mana-tuksi 

mafarufaru 

Takar 

nawa-nawa- 
jengki 

... 

... 

Jamna 

jim,  rim 

sinafui 

... 

Masimasi 

rim 

sanafu 

... 

Moar 

rim 

Kumamba 

lim 

sanafun 

Pauwi 

pa-rinisi 

ponensi 

putaonsi 

Wamberan 

... 

Waropin 

rimo 

... 

... 

Mohr 

rimo 

Angadi 

mahar^-ajahe- 

mahare-jana- 

mahare-jami- 

rauri 

uwa 

natia 

Goreda 

mahere-herori 

taoru 

Nagramadu 

mama-riba 

mariba-nadi 

mSma-riibAma 

Tandia 

marasi 

... 

Dascner 

rimbi 

Jaur 

breiare 

Wandammen 

rim 

rimi-siri 

sura 

snun-tupesi 

Manikion 

sirkem 

... 

... 

... 

Onin 

nima 

nem 

pusua 

puti-nuwa 

Kapauer 

here-tembu 

here-tembu- 
here-wo 

pra'a 

to  mdijowo 

Karufa 

rimi 

rom-simoksi 

put]  a 

siiimput-rueiti 

Namatote 

rim 

rim-samoti 

futsa 

ombutueti 

Lobo 

rimi 

rim-samosi 

wutsya 

sekumat-rueti 

Mairassis 

iworo 

iwora-moi  (?  7) 

werowa-moi 

yauw-nat- 
makia 

Wuaussirau 

iworo 

iwor-tanau 

iwor-toki-tani 

toki-amoi 

Lakahia 

rim 

rim-onaravva 

Mimika 

... 

... 

Merauke 

iena-iena-zakod 

... 

... 

Bangu 

tambotlioi 

nimbo 

Parb 

tumbi-tumbi- 
yambia 

Bugi 

manda 

gaben 

dala 

Dabu 

tumu 

... 

Saibai 

... 

... 

... 

Mowata 

... 

Kunini 

imegube 

matemate 
(wrist) 

dare  [breast) 

Jibu 

kuraiepa 

ribenda  {ivrisi) 

mua  [breast) 

Kiwai 

Tirio 

miseka-miseka- 
oroka 

Tagota 

uradaga  (?) 

moti-taba-nan 

moti-tatan 

... 

Nufor 

rim 

onem 

samfur 

samfur-di-suru 

Ceram 

rima,  lim  I, 

ne,  luna,  no, 

husane,  husa, 

huturua 

dima 

onam 

utsya 

APPENDIX  C 


343 


LIST  OF  WORDS   USED    BY   THE   PAPUANS  IN  THE    DISTRICT 
OF  THE   MIMIKA   RIVER,   S.  W.  DUTCH    NEW   GUINEA. 


Above 

Opo 

Bow-string 

Kima 

^Tite 

Breast  (of  woman) 

Auwe 

Acid 

\  Imakeman 

(of  man) 

PUT 

Animal 

Irc^ka  (also 

Breathe 

Tua 

"  fish  ") 

Broken 

Taka 

Ankle 

Bau-mume 

Butterfly    . 

Wlrl 

Ant             .          .          . 

Wame 

Buttock      , 

Atabu 

Arm 
xVrm-band 

( To-marl 

no 

Maka-rc 

Calf  (of  leg) 
Canoe 

Ewambugu 
Ku 

Arrive 

Rlainaumi 

Cap  (worn  by  widows) 

Ubauta 

Arrow 

ITari 

Carve  (to) 

Maramu 

(barb  of) 

Imari 

Cassowary 

Tu 

Atap 
Axilla 

Wurl 
Emmabu 

Centipede  . 
Coconut     . 

Arowl 
Uteri 

Check 

Awar(re) 

Back  (of  man)     . 

Ata 

Child 

Aidru 

Bamboo     . 

Buiti 

Chin 

Kepare 

Banana 

Kau 

Cicada 

Weako 

(plantation  of) 

Kauti 

Cloth 

Plki 

Band   (of  rattan  won 

Club 

Moanne 

round  middle) 

Iwau-makarc 

Clouds 

Apu 

Bandicoot 

Puruga 

Cockatoo    . 

PukI 

Bark  (of  tree)      . 

Pikl 

Cold 

Yu 

Basket 

\  Temme 

iEta 
Kamburi 
Kawetl 

Comb 

Ta 

Beads 
Bean 

Copulate    . 
Cough 

Ipe 

Otah 

Peja 

r  Keparisc 

Crab 

Epor(re) 

Beard 

1  Kepa  biri 
Bun'di 

Crayfish     . 

Bi 
Bi 

Pakuti 

Crocodile    . 

TTmaku 

Bed  (mat) 

.      Kapiii 

Cry  (weep) 

Mbage 

Bee  . 

Imoho 

Cut  (to)      . 

Embe 

Beetle 

Buruta 

Cuscus  (Phalanger) 

Apui 

Belch 

IMbau 

Belly 

Iwau 

Dance        •         • 

Dirin-dirin 

Big   .          .          . 
Bird 

(of  Paradise     . 

^  Atwa 

\  Iwako 

S  Pateru 

) Paturu 

C  Yamuku 
•  i  Yau 

^Tite 
'   I  Imakeman 

Deep 
Dog  . 
Drink 
Drum 

Emi'iku 
Wiri 
Tomagu 
Emme 

Ear  , 

Ene 

Bitter 

Ear-ring     . 

Tirawone 

Black 

.     Ikako 

Earth  (sand) 

Tirl 

Blood 

Marete 

Eat  . 

Namuka 

Blunt 

Yamcna 

Eel    . 

Mbatarubia 

Boat 

Ku 

Egg  .          .          .          , 

Taret6 

Bodice  (of  woven  fibre 

)     Paite 

Elbow 

To-mame 

Body 

.     Nata 

Exchange  . 

Akora 

Bottle 

.      Karepa 

Eye  .          .          .          . 

Mame 

Bow 

.     Amuri 

Eyebrow    . 

Mambiri 

344 


PYGMIES  AND  PAPUANS 


Far   . 

.     Awakopire 

Navel 

.     Bopord 

Fat  . 

.     Atwa 

Neck 

.     Ima 

Feather      . 

.     Idl 

New            . 

.     Aigu 

Finger 

.      Mare 

Nod 

.      Kiparu 

Finger-nail 

.     Mare 

Nose 

.      Birim 

Fire  . 

.      Uta 

(secretion  of)  . 

.     BiQdi 

(stick)     . 

.      Utamau 

Fish 

.      Ireka 

Old  man  of  village       .     Natu 

Flower  (orchid)  . 

.      Idarune 

One  . 

.     Inakwa 

Fly  (insect) 

.      Oboo 

Orchid 

.      Idarone 

Flying-fox 

.      lea 

Other 

.      Awaida 

Foot 

.     Bauwe 

Other  man 

,     Wehwaida 

Forehead   . 

.     M6tar(re) 

Other  man's 

.     Wehwaidata 

Ghost 

.     Ni'niki 

Paddle       . 

.     Poh 

Give 

.     Kema 

Palate 

.     Tibanne 

Grass 

.      Umetir(rc) 

Papaya 

.     Tenk 

Grasshopper 

.      Atoko 

Parrot 

.     Akima 

Green 

.     Otopu 

Pearl 

.     Omab(e) 

Penis 

.      Kam^re 

Hair 

.     Virl 

(case)      . 

.     Kamare- 

Hand 

.     Mare 

po(ko) 

He    . 

.      Amarepa 

Pig    .          . 

•  |Api, 

Head 

.     Kapa-ue 

Heavy 

.     Ikiti 

Pigeon 

.     Parua 

Heel 

.     Mbautep(e) 

Pillow  (wooden) 

.     Yamate 

His   . 

.      Amareta 

Pine-apple 

.     Makadete 

Hiccough  . 

.      Urri 

Prawn 

.     Mbi 

Hombill     . 

.     Kumai 

Pumpkin    . 

.     Nabru 

Hornet 

.      Imoko 

Python 

.     Pimi 

House 

.      Kdme 

Rain 

.     Ke 

I        . 

.      Doro 

Rainbow    . 

.     Paraketa 

Ill     . 

.      Namuti 

Rapids 

.      Kamawa 

Image  (carved) 

.     Betoro 

Rat  . 

.     Kemako 

Iron 

.     Tau 

Rattan       . 

.     Kima 

Red  . 

.     Epero 

Knee 

.     Iribu 

Ribs 

.     Parero 

Rice 

.      Wate 

Lance 

.     Uruna 

Ripe 

.     Pu 

Laugh 

.     Oko 

River 

.     luata 

Leaf 

.     E 

Road  (track) 

.     Make 

Leg  . 

.      Atirl 

Rope 

.     Temmk 

Lightning  . 

.     Marapiti 

Lips 

.      Iri 

Sacrum 

.     Wagainau(e) 

Little 

.     Mimiti 

Sago 

.     Amota 

Lizard 

.     Inamo 

(beater) 

.     Wapiiri 

Lizard  (frilled) 

.     Wago 

Sago-bowl 

.     Pamagu 

Loins 

.     Yaimi 

Sap  . 

.     NamI 

Scorpion     . 

.     Purumbaa 

Man 

.      Uweri 

Sea    . 

.     Takari 

Many 

.     Takiri 

Shallow      . 

.     Tapari 

Mat  (of  pandani 

s)       .     Au 

Sharp 

.     Yanako 

Melon 

.      Anete 

Shell 

.     Parau 

Mine 

.     Dorota 

Shell-fish    . 

.     Uwo 

Moon 

.     Pura 

Shin 

.     Imbiri 

Mosquito    . 

.     Itji 

Shore 

.     Tiri 

Mountain  . 

.     Pukare 

Shoulder    . 

.     Ta-ri 

Mouth 

.     Ba 

Shoulder-blade 

.     To-babu 

Moustache 

.     Mbu-tlri 

Skin 

.     Pigeri 

APPENDIX  C 


345 


Skull 

.     Upau 

Toes 

.     BauwC 

Sleep 

.     Et6 

To-morrow 

.      Kaiimuta 

Snail 

.     Tapoko 

Tongue 

.     Mali 

Snake 

.     Apako 

Tooth 

.     Titl 

Sneeze 

.      Yaie 

Tree 

.     Uti 

Spear 

.     Uruna 

Turtle 

.     Mbiambu 

(wooden) 

.     Potakii 

Two 

.     Yamani 

Spit  .         '. 

.     Mbatau 

Star 

.     Mako 

Upset 

.     Piro 

Steal 

.     Otemu 

Stick  (of  club) 

.      Wu 

Viper 

.     Mdgu 

Sting-ray   . 

.      Kau 

Vomit 

.     Mbau 

Stone 

.     Omani 

Suck 

.     Au 

Water 

.     Mbi 

Sugar-cane 

.     Muni 

Mbu 

Sun  . 

.     Yau 

(make)    . 

.     GTgi 

Sweat 

.     Papill 

Wet 

.     Nata 

Sweet  potato 

.     Pamu 

Whistle      . 

.     Wiramogo 

Swim 

.     Timago 

White 

.     Naputi^re 

Wind 

.      Kimir(e) 

Tear(a)       . 

.     Bagumbii 

Woman      . 

.     Kaukwa 

Thigh 

.     I 

Aina 

Throat 

.      Kimari 

Wound       . 

.     Natu 

Thumb      I 

.     Ipau 

Wrist 

.     Marapiime 

Great  Toe  i 

Thunder    . 

.     Uraki 

Yawn 

.     Mbapoh 

Tired 

.     Toh 

Yellow 

.     Taier(re) 

Tobacco     . 

.     Kapaki 

You 

.     Oro 

To-day 

.     Wauw^ 

Your 

.     Orota 

INDEX 


Acton,  Lord,  2 

Albinos,  no 

Alcohol,  68 

Amberno  River,  24 

Amboina,  14,  257 ;  communication 
with,  209 ;  inhabitants  of,  17  ;  mar- 
ket at,  17 

Amboncse  coolies,  50 

Ambonese,  dress  of,  17  ;  names  of,  17 

Aiiwki  1 85 

Arafura  Sea,  19,  35 

Arfak  Mountains,  23 

Arrows,  151 

Aru  Islands,  19 

Atap,  method  of  making,  60 

Atuka  River,  248 

Atjeh,  92 


B 


Balfour,  H.,  203 

Bali,  259 

Bamboo,  throwing  lime  from,  219 

Banana,  17,  88 

Banda,  16,  19,  257 

Batavia,  3  ;  washing  in,  9 

Bees,  stingless  honey-,  76 

Beetles,  as  food,  124  ;  larva  of,  156 

Beri-beri,  66,  193 

Bird   of  Paradise,  74,   142,   159,  178, 

227,  261 
Birds,  collection  of,  241 
Boat-builders,  225 
Boni,  14 

Bonnets  of  widows,  1 1 5 
Borneo,  21 


Boro-Boder,  il 

Botanic  station  at  Merauke,  224 

Bougainville,  de,  31 

Bows,  151 

Bridge,  building  a,  235 

British  New  Guinea,  22 

British  Ornithologists'  Union,  I 

Brush  Turkey,  76 

Buddhist  Temples,  1 1 

Buitenzorg  garden,  10 

Buleling,  258 

Butonese,  170 

Butterflies,  16 


Camp,  health  of,  58;  repairing,  188 

Cannibalism,  127 

Canoes,  219  ;  building  of,  53  ;  descrip- 
tion of,  53  ;  method  of  paddling,  36 : 
the  price  of,  55 

Carstensz,  Mt.,  23,  44,  181,  212 

Carstensz,  Jan,  28,  221 

Cape  York,  28,  32 

Carteret,  Philip,  31 

Cassowaries,  200,  214 

Cassowary,  125,  241 

Casuarina  trees,  42 

Cat's  cradle,  147 

Celebes,  14 

Celebes  Trading  Company,  20 

Ceram,  14 

Ceremonies,  131 

Charles  Louis  Mountains,  23,  35,  44 

Chief,  128 

Children,  games  of,  117 

Chinese,  17,  223,  225 

Christians  at  Amboina,  17 


348 


PYGMIES  AND  PAPUANS 


Cicatrisation,  112 

Clothing  of  Dutch,  9  ;  of  natives,  113 

Clouds  on  mountains,  45 

Clubs,  Dutch,  18;   stonehcaded,  149; 

wooden,  14S 
Coal,  241 
Coast,  description  of,  42  ;   navigation 

of,  249 
Coconuts,  98,  223 
Comet,  Halley's,  81 
Convicts,  13,  93  ;  madness  of,  215 
Cook,  Captain,  31,  219 
Coolies,  15,  170,  227  ;   Ambonese,  50; 

failure   of,  231;    feebleness  of,  51; 

sickness  of,  1S4 
Corals,  16 
Counting,  104 
Cramer,  H.  A.,  3,  13,  41,  46,  57,  92, 

102,  231,  258 
Crickets,  a  plague  of,  59 
Crocodiles,  75 
Crowned  pigeon,  74 
Crows,  pale,  I'j 
Cultivation,  88  ;  in  Java,  5 


D 


Daggers  of  bone,  203 

d'Albertis,  33 

Dampier,  Captain,  31,  123 

Dancing,  143  ;  houses,  143 

Darwin,  Mt.  Leonard,  239 

Dayaks,    172,    194 ;    arrival   of,    253 ; 

industry  of,  214 
Dead,  disposal  of,  137-140 
Death,  136 
Digoel  River,  24 
Disease,  205 
Djokjakarta,  11 
Dobo,  19,  257 
Dog,  Papuan,  126 
Dorei,  22 
Drawing,  145 
Drowning  of  sailor,  170 
Drums,  141 
Ducks,  penguin,  11  ;  perching  in  trees, 

86 
Dugongs,  212 


Dumas,  J.  M.,  212 

Dumas,  Mr.,  44 

Dutch,  Government,  3,  257  ;  food  of, 
7  ;  house  of,  8  ;  habits  of,  9  ;  tree- 
planting  by,  15  ;  hospitality  of,  18; 
rule  in  New  Guinea,  23  ;  explorations 
of,  28  ;  East  India  Company,  31  ; 
Expeditions,  213,  216 


Earthquake  at  Amboina,  15 
Effigies,  carved,  131 
Endeavour,  voyage  of,  31 
Escort,  3,  13 

Expedition,  members  of,  2  ;  leave  Java, 
13 


Fak-fak,  224 

Families,  129 

Festival,  134 

Fiji,  24 

Fire,  152 

Fire-making,  200 

Fish,  many  coloured,  16 

Fishing-net,  120 

Flies,  a  plague  of,  58  ;  on  water,  76 

Flint  knives,  200 

Flood,  132,  156,  173,  178,  189 

Flores,  24 

Flowers,  206,  242 

Fly  River,  33,  42 

Food  of  natives,  119,  124 

Forbes,  H.  O.,  33 

Forest,  242-245 

Fortnum  and  Mason,  68 

Frogmouth,  77 


Garden  at  Amboina,  16 
Garoet,  11 

Geographical  Society,  Royal, 
German  New  Guinea,  22 


INDEX 


349 


Ghosts,  133 

Goa,  Raja  of,  14 

Godman,  F.  D.,  i 

Godman,  Mt.,  239 

Goodfellow,  W.,  2,  142,  167,  170,  172, 

195 
Grant,  C.  H.  B.,  194,231,  241 
Grant,  W.  R.  Ogilvie,  i 
Grey,  Sir  E.,  3 
Guillemard,  38 
Gurkhas,  3,   156,  160^  171,   179,   194, 

233 


H 

Habbema,  Lieut.,  169 

Half-castes,  6,  223 

Halley's  Comet,  8r 

Head-rests,  152 

Herwerden,  Captain,  13 

Hindu  Temple,  259 

Hornbills,  86 

Houses  of  the  natives,  96 ;   in  trees, 

217 ;  communal,  218 
Humboldt  Bay,  33 


Idis,  I 

Iguanas,  75 

Intoxication  of  natives,  99 

Incense,  smell  of,  238 

Island  River,  Dutch  Expedition,  60; 

description  of,  216 
Iwaka  River,  231 


Java,  prosperity  of,  5  ;  half-castes  in,  6 
Javanese  soldiers,  62 
Jew's  harp,  203 
Jungle,  clearing  the,  46 


Kaiserin  Augusta  River,  24,  28 
Kalff,  Mr.  E.,  227 


Kamura  River,  17 5,  248 

Kapare  River,  82 

Kd  Islands,  15,  51,  257;  natives  of, 

225 
Kingfishers,  59 
Kloss,  C.  B.,  253 
Kolff,  220 
Kris,  abolition  of,  7 


Language,  difficulty  of,  103 

La  Perouse,  32 

La  Scyne,  wreck  of,  3 

Leeches,  177 

Le  Maire,  Jacques,  28 

Lombok,  258 

Lorentz,  H.  A.,  2,  13,  33,  34,  169,  172, 

241 
Lories,  75 


M 


Macassar,  14 

MacCluer  Gulf,  42 

]\IacCluer,  John,  32 

Macgregor,  Sir  W.,  33 

Malays,   185  ;  food  of,  65  ;  music   of, 

143 

Mangrove,  42 

Marianne  Strait,  220 

Marriage,  116 

Marshall,  E.  S.,  2,  80,  82,  133,  175, 
185,  231 

Medical  treatment,  167 

Meek,  Mr.,  213 

Megapode,  yj 

Meneses,  Don  Torge  de,  27 

Merauke,  31,  37,222  ;  communication 
with,  209  ;  natives  of,  226 

Mimika,  first  voyage  on,  39 ;  de- 
scription of,  40,  71;  water  of,  40; 
tides  on  the,  57  ;  obstacles  in,  78 

Mission  at  Dorsi,  22 

Missions,  154 

Mosquitoes,  211,  223 

Motor-boat,  52,  173,  248 


350 

Murderer,  13,  186 
Music,  141 


PYGMIES  AND   PAPUANS 


Natives,  trading  with,  61  ;  communi- 
cating with,  84,  102  ;  dislike  of  rain, 
84  ;  migrations  of,  95  ;  drink  of,  99  ; 
language  of,  102,  Appendix  C  ;  de- 
scription of,  109;  height  of,  112; 
clothing  of,  113  ;  age  of,  115  ;  food 
of,  119,  120;  social  system  of,  128  ; 
property  of,  129  ;  music  of,  141  ; 
dancing  of,  143  ;  ^^  artists,  145  ; 
mock  sorrow  of,  247  ;  quarrels  of, 
148  ;  as  marksmen,  151  ;  health  of, 
153  ;  as  carriers,  158  ;  our  relations 
with,  163  ;  as  thieves,  165 

Naturalists,  explorations  by,  32 

New  Guinea,  position  of,  21 ;  size  of, 
21  ;  mountains  of,  23  ;  natives  of, 
24  ;  discovery  of,  26  ;  name  of,  27  ; 
recent  explorations  of,  33  ;  first  sight 
of,  35  ;  shore  of,  36 ;  lack  of  food, 
65  ;  rivers  of,  24,  83,  181  ;  departure 
from,  257 

Newton,  Professor  Alfred,  i 

Ntas,  13,  35 

Nimd,  dancing  house  at,  252 

Noord  River,  2,  13,  33,  34 

Nouhuys,  J.  W.  van,  169 

Numerals,  104 


Obota,  83 
Ogilvie-Grant,  W.  R.,  i 


Palm,  coconut,  98 

Pandanus,  10,  243 

Papua,  22  ;  meaning  of,  25 

Papuans,  description  of,  25,  109  ;  be- 
haviour of,  37;  dress  of,  37,  113; 
apathy  of,  38,  45  ;  asleep,  39  ;  danc- 
ing, 41,  143  ;  as  traders,  45  ;  com- 
municating with,  84  ;  dislike  of  rain, 


84  ;  food  of,  9 1-4  migrations  of,  95  ; 
drink  of,  99  ;  language  of,  102,  Ap- 
pendix C  ;  height  of,  112  ;  age  of, 
1 15  J  social  system  of,  128  ;  property 
of,  129;  music  of,   141  ;  as  artists, 
145  ;   quarrels  of,   148  ;   as  marks- 
men, 151  ;  health  of,  153 
Paradise,  bird  of,  74,  142 
Parimau,  arrival  at,  56,   155  5  depar- 
ture from,  247 
Payment  of  natives,  163 
Peace-offering,  166 
Pearls,  20 
Pearl-shell,  20 
Penguin  ducks,  T  i 
Periepia,  85 
Petroleum,  241 
Pickles,  68 
Pig,  125,  133-136 
Pigeons,  crowned,  31,  74 
Pineapples,  loi 
Plants,  231 

Plants  at  Buitenzorg,  10 
Ponies,  259 
Pool,  Thomas,  30 
Port  Moresby,  natives  of,  213 
Portuguese,  remains  of,  17  ;  navigators, 

27 
Precipice,  239 

Prince  Frederick  Henry  Island,  220 
Propeller,  loss  of,  250 
Provisions,  storing  of,  66  ;  packing  of, 

68  ;  depot  of,  176 
Pygmies,  discovery  of,  157  ;  visit  to, 
159;  dress  of,  161  ;  description  of, 
161,  197  ;  voices  of,  162  ;  visit  Pari- 
mau, 196 ;  measurements  of,  197, 
Appendix  B;  ornaments  of,  199; 
possessions  of,  199;  methods  of 
smoking,  202 ;  village  of,  203  ; 
houses  of,  205 ;  women  of,  206  ;  in- 
telligence of,  207 ;  distribution  of, 
208' 


Races,  mixture  of,  6;  harmony  of,  19 
Raffles,  Sir  Stamford,  5,  10 


INDEX 


351 


Rain,  79 

Rattiin,  -43 

Rawling,  C.  G.,  2,  82,  156,  174-5,  I95, 

219,248 
Relationship,  105 
Reptiles,  168 

Retcs,Ynigo  Ortiz  de,  27 
Rice,  65  ;  cultivation  in  Java,  5 
Rifle  bird,  159 
Rijst-lafel,  7 
Rivers,  branching,  83  ;  crossing,  236  ; 

in  New  Guinea,  24 
Robinson,  H.  C.,  194 
Roebink,  voyage  of,  3 1 
Ruwenzori,  2,  238 


Sago,  65,  89-92 

St.  Nicholas,  feast  of,  6,  228 

Sandpiper,  86 

Sara\vak,  H.  H.  the  Raja  of,  253 

Sarong-,  10 

Schouten  Islands,  27 

Schoiifen,  Willem,  28 

Scre\\»-piaes,  10,  243 

Sea,  depth  of,  19 

Sea-siakes,  215 

Seasois,  79  ;  wet,  192 

ShacWeton  Expedition,  67 

Sharks,  fishing  for,  46 

Shortiidge,  G.  C.,  2,  172,  194,  210 

Sickness,  171-192 

Sindaiglaya,  11 

Skulls,  preservation  of,  139 

Smith,  Staniforth,  90 

Snaket,  167 

Snow  Mountains,  1,23,33;  discovery 
of,  :9 ;  first  sight  of,  35  ;  distant 
view  of,  43  ;  attempt  to  reach,  229 

Social  system,  128 

Soldiei!>  native,  92 

Songs,  J  42 

Spaniii  navigators,  27 

Spear^  151 

Spices  Dutch  monopoly  of,  31 

SpidcB,  tameness  of,  58 


Stalker,  W.,  2,  14,  5r  ;   death  of,  47 

funeral  of,  49 
Steam-launch,  52,  170 
Stone  Age,  151 
Stone  implements,  150 
Stones,  gifts  of,  87 
Sugar-palm,  99 
Sumbawa,  258 
Superstitions,  131 
Swift,  Moustachcd,  241 
Swimming,  117 


Tapiro  {se^  Pygmies) 

Tasman,  30 

Tattooing,  112 

Tears,  a  welcome  of,  41 

Temples  at  Boro-Boder,  1 1 

Ternate,  Sultan  of,  22  ;  traders  of,  89 

Thunderstorms,  79,  132 

Tides  of  the  river,  57 

Timura  River,  251 

Tobacco,  38,  202 ;  cultivation  of,  88 

Torres,  Luis  Vaz  de,  27 

Torres  Strait,  32 

Tosari,  12 

Track,  used  by  natives,   176;  cutting 

a,  183 
Trade  goods,  63 
Transport,  difficulty  of,  52 
Travelling,  difficult,  230 
Trees,  216,  243  ;  falling  at  night,  77  ; 

cutting  down,  187  ;  houses  in,  217 
Tuaba  River,  175 
Tugeri,  23 
Tugeri  tribe,  222 


Utakwa,  Dutch  expedition  to,  210 
Utakwa  River,  4,  33,  210 


Van  der  Bie,  212 
Vanilla,  159 


352 


PYGMIES  AND   PAPUANS 


Vegetation,  237    ' 
View,  a  rare,  240 
Volcano,  15 
Volcanoes  in  Java,  5, 


W 


Wailing  at  death,  137 

Wakatimi,    arrival  at,  40  ;    camp    at, 

46  ;   description  of,   95  ;   departure 

from,  255 
Wallaby,  125 
Wallace,  A.  R.,  16,  20,  33,38,  91,  244 


Wamberi  Merbiri,  203 

Wania,  excursion  to,  249 

Wania  River,  236,  239,  249 

Wataikwa,  231 

Wataikwa  River,  175 

Water,  lack  of,  237 ;  squeezec'.  from 
moss,  238 

Water-lilies,  10 

Weather,  79 

Wilhelmina,  Mt.,  23,  45,  169,  220 

Wives,  number  of,  116 

Women,  148;  clothing  of,  114;  treat- 
ment of,  130  ;  dress  of  Dutch,  9  ; 
Pygmies,  206 


THE  END 


i 


PRINTED   BV  WILLIAM  CLOWES  AND   SONS,   LIMITED,   LONDON  AND  BECCLKS. 


SEP  1^  1988 


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